BATH Rugby head coach Mike Ford has urged his troops to not let their heartbreaking European Champions Cup exit affect their quest to claim a place in the Aviva Premiership play-offs.

Bath return to action on Friday night less than a week after being knocked out of Europe by Irish giants Leinster with a 18-15 defeat in the quarter-finals.

Ford says his troops must get that loss out of their system quickly as they now face a stiff challenge away at Newcastle Falcons in the resumption of their league programme.

Bath will play at Falcons’ Kingston Park for the first time since it switched to an artificial playing surface, and Ford acknowledges that their opponents are much improved in their second season back in the top flight.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we have to take our motivation into the Premiership,” said Ford.

“We have to move on and learn from this experience and be better for it.

“It’s going to be a tough game up at Newcastle. The pitch has helped them, and they can play a fast-paced game. I’m not really a fan of them but it is what it is.

“They’ve got a wily old coaching team, Dean Richards won the Premiership four times with Leicester.

“They were always going to improve this year. We have to go there with the right attitude, if we take them lightly we won’t win.”

Bath could not have come much closer to victory in the Aviva Stadium last weekend.

They recovered from a poor first half to dominate the second, and were just one successful kick away from a place in the semi-finals.

Ford added: “We don’t want any sympathy and people saying it’s a fantastic achievement to get that far having lost the first two games, or got go so close having been 15-5 down at half-time.

“We are better than that and we didn’t get it right in the first half.

“We believe that when we are on our A game we can be one of the best teams in Europe but we weren’t quite there for 80 minutes.

“We had a great opportunity in the competition. People will say we weren’t ready this year but we think we were.

“If you are going to lose, that’s the way you want to do it, showing attacking intent.”

Props Davey Wilson and Henry Thomas are still not fit to return for Bath, while club captain Stuart Hooper is a doubt for the trip to Newcastle.

Ford added: “Stuart is struggling with a calf injury. He’s our leader and he’ll be a loss for us if he’s not available. He’s very durable and it will be the first game he’s missed with injury.”