London Scottish secured revenge for their agonising Tetley's Bitter Cup defeat by Bath last season to shock the Premiership One leaders at a sodden Stoop Memorial Ground.

The Exiles' Australian full-back Ian McAusland booted a 73rd-minute penalty after Bath looked as though they had done enough.

Bath's replacement scrum-half, Scottish international Andy Nicol, touched down 17 minutes from time - but fly-half Mike Catt missed two long-range injury-time penalty chances.

The match brought Kevin Yates and Simon Fenn face to face for the first time since last January's cup clash.

Flanker Fenn lost part of his ear lobe during that game in an infamous ear-biting saga which saw Yates banned for six months by Rugby Football Union disciplinary chiefs.

But a trouble-free encounter this time around was all about sterling Scottish defence and a Bath side who never really got going in atrocious conditions.

Scottish, one place off the bottom before today, dug deep, inspired by the memory of their 24-23 defeat in January when former Bath full-back Jon Callard stroked an injury-time penalty.

Fenn was at the forefront of a colossal forward effort. Bath hammered away but could find no way through apart from Nicol's short-range effort following eight successive scrums on Scottish's tryline.

That score would have knocked the stuffing out of many sides. But Scottish battled on, and McAusland struck the winning kick from 22 metres when Bath strayed offside.

Scottish created the best move of a stop-start affair, left wing Conan Sharman rounding off a crisp move for a seventh-minute try.

Bath centre Phil de Glanville's missed tackle on Ronnie Eriksson produced a yawning gap, and Sharman sprinted over from McAusland's pass.

Two penalties kept Bath in contention at half-time, yet the second period saw them devoid of attacking ideas as they slipped to their second away defeat from three starts this term, having lost at champions Newcastle in early September.

A reasonable crowd of just over 3,000 gave Scottish prolonged applause as they left the pitch, their team having justified rugby director John Steele's pre-match prediction that the Exiles were about to turn the corner.