Gloucester coach Bryan Redpath was seething following his side's last-gasp defeat against Cardiff Blues in their opening LV= Cup clash at Kingsholm.

Blues fly-half Ceri Sweeney kicked a last-minute penalty to seal victory for the defending champions, who had trailed 13-3 at the end of the first quarter.

Gloucester had led 16-13 after a frenetic opening half thanks to tries from captain Gareth Delve and flanker Adam Eustace, plus a penalty apiece from fly-half Nicky Robinson and full-back Freddie Burns.

Cardiff's points came courtesy of a Xavier Rush score plus eight points from Sweeney's boot.

Burns and Sweeney traded penalties early in the second stanza before Sam Norton-Knight glided over to put Cardiff back in front.

But two late penalties from Carlos Spencer looked to have given the Cherry and Whites a first win in five games, only for Sweeney to hold his nerve in the dying seconds.

Redpath said: "One of the things we talk about is if we create problems, we create points. When we go outside of that and go on our own agenda we cut our own throats and it has been happening too long.

"When we are three points ahead our attention to detail around set piece and discipline in the contact area is not good enough. There is no excuse culture, you can't hide from it, it is as clear as night and day."

Redpath also felt his side had gifted Cardiff their two tries through poor defence.

"We made two set-piece defensive errors," he said.

"We missed Rush for his try and for the second try off the base of the scrum we were just chasing across the field and the guy steps inside and scores, two individual errors and it cost us 14 points.

"There was no trickery or technical movement it was just a one-on-one tackle."

Redpath also has several injury worries to contend with before his squad, without a win in five games, travel to Wasps next weekend as his side saw fly-half Nicky Robinson, wing James Simpson-Daniel and full-back Freddie Burns leave the field.

Redpath added: "Nicky has a bit of a groin problem, James has got a dead leg and bashed his thumb and Freddie has a dead leg. It's too early to say if they will be available next week."

Blues boss Dai Young was understandably delighted by his side's character as they recorded a fourth straight win over Gloucester.

Young said: "To come to Kingsholm is always difficult, it was a tight game and it could have gone either way right up until the end. But from our point of view we are thrilled to come away from here with the right result.

"I thought we showed a real togetherness, a real commitment to the cause and a real determination to get that victory.

"On a couple of occasions they got their noses in front but we stuck to our gameplan and got what we deserved."