No easy life for Davies
Gloucester boss Nigel Davies described life with his team as "pretty stressful with this lot at present" as they just held off a late London Irish rally to win the Aviva Premiership match.
Davies said after the 22-19 success: "We made hard work of it, especially at the start and at the end - but once again we controlled large parts of the match and this time we came away with the win."
Despite being outscored by three tries to one, Gloucester deserved this Madejski Stadium success and should have won by a greater margin.
Davies continued: "We played the game in the right areas, producing a good kicking game. This time we took the points on offer, for when sides are under pressure they give points away."
Billy Twelvetrees kicked 14 of Gloucester's points and controlled matters from his fly-half slot, impressing Davies.
He said: "Billy has nearly all the attributes to make a top number 10. He's very solid, pivotal and defensively sound but he wants to play at 12 and fill in at 10."
London Irish trailed 16-7 at half-time and played disappointingly for much of the game before the late rally which ran Gloucester close.
Home boss Brian Smith said: "We scored three tries to one which was a definite positive.
"It was disappointing but I'm very proud of our effort in the second half as bringing on fresh legs produced an excellent response and provided a great show.
"We had an outstanding start and skipped ahead but they chipped away at our lead and we coughed up too much ball in the second quarter to give away some cheap penalties."
Shane Geraghty missed a late chance to secure a draw for the Irish with his long distance penalty attempt falling well short.
James O'Connor may have been a better bet but Smith explained: "O'Connor does kick goals but your first option is to go to your number 10.
"Shane was very confident he could kick it and all three boys including Ian Humphreys have been striking the ball very well all week.
"It would have been a pretty good result if we could have got a draw in the end as it's disappointing to have only one point when we score three tries to one."
