Wasps came within five minutes of recording their first victory at Leicester Tigers since 2008 but a lack of discipline proved costly as Dai Young’s men lost 18-16 at Welford Road.

A penalty from Leicester’s Owen Williams – which came just a minute after Andy Goode had regained Wasps’ lead – inflicted Wasps’ second straight defeat in the Aviva Premiership on Saturday.

The narrow loss follows defeat against Exeter Chiefs a week previously, and Young was left disappointed by his side’s lack of discipline after the Tigers registered all their points via the boot of Williams.

“Discipline was the difference between winning and losing today,” he said. “Especially in the last ten minutes when we got our noses in front but gave away three silly penalties when we had a chance to win the game.

"We have to look at ourselves, first and foremost. It's very easy to direct criticism at the referee but we have to look at ourselves. The last three penalties were definite penalties and they were silly ones to give away when we had a lead."

The visitors scored the only try of the game almost immediately after the restart, having trailed 9-3 at the interval, when Alapati Leiua charged down David Mele’s attempted clearance to dart over for the score. Andy Goode kicked the resulting conversion and, after the Tigers had regained their advantage, the Wasps fly-half looked to have set his side on their way to victory when his penalty, with just six minutes remaining, put the away team 16-15 up.

The lead lasted less than a minute, however, as Williams held his nerve to kick his sixth penalty of the afternoon and condemn Young’s team to defeat.

Wasps now lie seventh in the league table, but Young insisted after the match that he feels his side can still secure European rugby next term.

He said: "Top six is our target. I don't feel like we are a top four side at the moment and we face a bit of a scrap to get into the top six, with a few sides there or thereabouts.

“This week's performance is more where we want it to be and if our discipline had been better we could've come away with the win."

Young’s men will now prepare for a European Rugby Champions Cup double header against Castres Olympique, with Sunday’s game in France followed by the December 14 fixture, which marks the end of Wasps’ stay at Adams Park.