LACKLUSTRE was he word of the day for Cornish Pirates fans as they saw their team falter to a defeat.

They welcomed Nottingham to the Mennaye for the first Greene King IPA Championship match in a month, but unlike their recent British & Irish Cup games could not produce a performance to make it another nailbiter.

Instead it was an error strewn showing by the Cornishmen as their opponents eased to a 28-13 win which includes a try scoring bonus point.

The visiting defence proved to be too big a nut for Ian Davies' men to crack as they barely made it near their opponent's try line all afternoon.

However, they did not do themselves any favours with their game being filled with mistakes throughout the clash.

Problems first rose up for the Pirates with just 57 seconds on the clock as Daniel Mugford slipped past his tackler to run clear from 22m out and score, although the fly-half would end up missing a fairly simple conversion kick.

Max Bodilly, who was by far the host's best player of the day, looked to have given some spark to the Pirates five minutes in when his up and under kick which he plucked in the air gained 40m.

It would go onto set up Kieran Hallett with a penalty from about 35m out which he knocked over from just left of centre.

Nottingham piled the pressure on again and nearly went in twice through hooker Shaun Malton and outside centre Edward Styles, but last ditch tackles halted their progress in time on both occasions.

Mugford then sent a penalty crashing off the post before Hallett showed him how it is done when he slotted home a kick to give the home side the lead.

But just before half time Nottingham regained the lead as Tom Hendrickson's pass for Bodilly was read all too well by Mugford, who intercepted and ran 40m to score in the corner.

After this mistake, the Pirates will have wanted to ensure they made a good start to the second half, but this would not be the case.

Substitute Jack Andrew, who had just replaced his brother Paul, knocked-on from a poor pass by Tom Kessell on the first play after the break.

A penalty was then awarded to Nottingham from the resulting scrum which Mugford booted through from 22m out.

There did seem to be some hope for the Pirates five minutes later when after a few good drives, Kieran Goss received the ball out wide, sidestepped Mugford and raced home into the corner.

Hallett's excellent conversion from the right touchline levelled the scores and it looked like another close finish was on the cards.

It would end up being false hope though as Nottingham took the game away from the Pirates as they made the most of their opponent's errors.

Their skipper Brent Wilson grabbed two tries to earn them a bonus point with both scores coming from driving mauls from 5m out as the Pirates were penalised.

In between these tries, the lead was extended more by substitute Will Maisey who bagged a penalty from 22m out after the Pirates saw a drop-out kick charged down, leading to an infringement as they panicked.

The Pirates kept going forward as they looked to cut the deficit down and sneak at least a losing bonus point.

Sadly their two main attacks into the visitor's 22 both ended in self-inflicted failure.

First they were called up for crossing as they looked to set a driving maul up near. Nottingham's goal area.

Then minutes later as they persevered their way into the 22 as they kept trying to barge their way past Nottingham's defence, Maisey got hold of the ball and cleared as Chris Morgan looked to offload.

These two attacks summed up the Pirates' day, a bit of intent killed off by avoidable errors.

With a tough trip up to Rotherham next up for them, these are problems they will have to cut out quickly.

They will travel without flanker Alex Cheesman, an important player for them, as he suffered a dislocated shoulder in the first half.

PIRATES: 15 May (Townsend, 64), 14 Goss, 13 Riley (Dancer, 59), 12 Hendrickson, 11 Bodilly, 10 Hallett, 9 Kessell; 1 P Andrew (J Andrew, 41), 2 Channon (Brooker, 69), 3 Paver (Davies, 64), 4 Carrick-Smith, 5 Barry (Garratt, 69), 6 Morgan (c), 7 Cheesman (Atkinson, 25), 8 McGlone.

TRY: Goss (46) CON: Hallett.

PENS: Hallett 2.