Leicester Tigers assistant coach Matt O'Connor said his side had only themselves to blame after succumbing to a 24-22 defeat at Wasps.

With head coach Richard Cockerill in his second week of a four-week match-day ban for abusing officials, O'Connor bemoaned a spell of 26 minutes either side of half-time which the home side won 16-0.

Centre Steve Kefu's try from first-phase possession, coupled with 11 points from the boot of fly-half Dave Walder saw Wasps turn a 12-8 deficit into a 24-12 lead.

Although Tigers battled back with a 10-point snare of their own in the final quarter, it was too little too late to earn any more than a losing bonus point, which just keeps them in the top four of the Guinness Premiership table.

Paul Sackey had scored the first try of the day on five minutes and, despite a big advantage up front early on, Leicester did not make the most of vast territorial advantage before half-time.

"The period just before half-time was very costly – it killed us. We were not happy with their second try," said O'Connor. "And you can't give unstructured opportunities to Joe Simpson and Paul Sackey because they will kill you all of the time. That's the way they play.

"We let ourselves down with the ball and took the pressure off Wasps with errors.

"They are a great defensive side and they will put you under pressure. As a result, we were a little bit innaccurate with the ball and also with our execution which took the pressure off them.

"Having said that, it was very wet out there, a lot wetter than it looked from the stands. There was a lot of rain last night."

O'Connor's comments on the state of the pitch were interesting as Wasps face a Premier Rugby hearing today to put their case forward in light of their controversial postponement with Sale 10 days ago.

"A week off can go both ways for you," said O'Connor. "Sometimes, you can be a bit rusty – but they are never rusty when they are playing Leicester are they, so it was probably good for them in hindsight. But they kicked better out of hand than us and put us under pressure with their good chasing game.

"When they got ahead, they snuck a victory on a territorial battle. When you are playing with a lead, it makes it very hard when you are chasing a game.

"If it had gone a bit differently, we would have scored that try and, had we kicked those goals 20 minutes earlier, we would have made a different game of it.

"But it wasn't to be and, as a result, Wasps are as good as anyone at seeing out a game when they have got a lead. That was that."

Wasps head coach Shaun Edwards said: "I don't think they deserved that try at the end because we had defended manfully.

"That was a game that we very much wanted to win."

Harry Ellis, Sam Vesty and Billy Twelvetrees are all set to make their comeback from injury in Tigers Development XV's game with Sale in the Guinness A League at Welford Road tonight .