Joe Gray admitted Harlequins were far from at their best as they slipped to a disappointing defeat to Premiership basement boys London Irish on Saturday.

John Kingston’s side were on the end of a 35-5 reverse with only Jack Clifford crossing the whitewash for the home side.

Defeat keeps Irish’s slim survival hopes alive and leaves the inconsistent Quins ninth in the league.

And hooker Gray fronted up about his side’s performance as they look for an immediate reaction next week against Gloucester.

“There were a lot of inaccuracies – they came out of the blocks firing,” he said. “We had said all week about a quick start, getting out of the blocks, not giving them an early lead and basically did the opposite.

“They executed well, but we were really inaccurate, especially in their half, we gave them a lot of opportunities and spilt a lot of our own ball.

“It was really disappointing – everyone’s pretty gutted in the changing room and it was a bad day.

“Gloucester will be a tough game as we know how they’ve been going this season but it’s great to be able to right a few wrong in seven days’ time.

“Everyone knows that’s nowhere near our standards and nowhere near what we need to do to be where we want to be as a squad.”