First-team coach Neal Hatley paid tribute to Bath Rugby's patience as they survived a nervy first half before romping to an emphatic 44-23 victory over London Irish in the Aviva Premiership on Saturday.
Irish's Topsy Ojo and Bath's Kyle Eastmond traded tries in an even opening 40 minutes at the Madejski Stadium, which saw the visitors head into the break 14-13 in front.
Further touchdowns from Anthony Watson, Davey Wilson and Matt Garvey put the visitors in total control after the restart as they wrapped up a bonus-point win. Chris Hala'ufia added a second try for Irish late on.
Bath's success follows defeat in their last two matches and gets their quest to finish in the Premiership play-off spots back on track. They remain third in the table but now have a seven-point advantage over Sale Sharks in fifth.
The visitors were uncharacteristically slow out of the blocks in Reading but Hatley attributed that to Irish's determination to impress on their annual St Patrick's Day Party rather than Bath's recent disappointing form.
"I don't think there was a hangover. We thought they would start fast on such a big day for them," said Hatley.
"We've talked the whole week about backing ourselves to build pressure. We probably didn't do that well enough in the first half but we came out in the second half and George Ford was absolutely outstanding and we were able to build lots of pressure.
"The set-piece got rumbling and we started to pick up scrum penalties, lineout drive penalties, good field position, and from there we could take advantage.
"We've said we'd much prefer to be in this position with our noses in front and it starts to stretch open that gap. It's massively important, particularly away from home, to get five points."
Hatley spent more than a decade as a player and coach with Irish before joining the staff at Bath alongside former Exiles boss Toby Booth ahead of the 2012-13 season.
Bath also recruited a quartet of players from Irish last summer and both Watson and Garvey celebrated their first returns to the Madejski with a try.
Hatley added: "It is two years now nearly and it's just fantastic to come back and get a bonus-point win, particularly with one or two of the other results that have happened today.
"It's always nice to come back and it's even better to come back and get five points."
