FRUSTRATED boss Will Croker admitted the error count had stacked up against Bournemouth in their comprehensive defeat at Ivybridge.

Lions suffered their third straight loss in National Three South West as the hosts emerged 35-10 winners at their Cross-in-Hand headquarters.

A try from wing Alex Everett-Bolter and five points from the boot of Grand Hancox was all Bournemouth had to show for their lengthy trip to Devon.

And while there was a debut for summer signing Freddie Gleadowe, centre Rob Bruce's first start since May 2013 was ended prematurely due to concussion.

To compound matters, Jack Hennings also exited the fray with a hamstring problem.

Reflecting on the defeat, Croker told the Daily Echo: "It was disappointing all round. We knew Ivybridge were going to be a good team as they are always difficult to play at their place.

"They are an incredibly nice bunch of people which makes it even more frustrating in some ways because you really want to hate them, but you can't.

"They are one of these teams who don't have any superstars but are just incredibly efficient.

"If you were to ask me to go through their pack against ours, you wouldn't necessarily take any of their players over ours. But they are very well drilled and know how to play their pitch.

"We made so many unforced errors. I think we gave away 16 penalties, which is not great, but it's not the end of the world. But we made around 25 unforced errors and you can't give a half-decent team 40 opportunities to run at you and expect to keep the score down. Eventually it will take its toll.

"We never got into our flow and when it looked like we were going to build consecutive phases, we conspired to give them the ball back. It was a very frustrating day."

Croker felt a growing absence list had presented his team with significant challenges this term, a state of affairs few would have foreseen.

"I'm not an excuses coach but I don't think you can underestimate we've lost a very experienced Combined Services and National League player in Dave Bates, as well as his second-row partner, Duncan Soden," added Croker.

"We've lost Joe Tarrant to Richmond and Alex Sutherland to a horror injury, plus Scott Chislett wasn't available this week.

"We pride ourselves on our squad depth but we are really testing it to the limit. It's already a very different team to the one we started the season with.

"We accept our performances haven't been good enough and that there are things we need to work on.

"The Dings loss was a real blow because we'd fought so hard to get ourselves into a winning position. We were really poor against Hornets and this week, we probably only had the ball for 20 minutes out of the 80."

Lions: Veneroso, Everett-Bolter, Hancox, Bruce, Roberts, Davies, Hardcastle, Spikings, Manning, Firetto, Levey, Kenneally, Hennings, McDonald, Rees. Replacements: Bennett, Gleadowe, Yeats.