Just before 7.30pm on Saturday evening music filled the air as the generally saturated and wholly dissatisfied crowd remnants drifted miserably away from The Rec.

Yes, I was very wet, despite being dressed in high mountain bad weather gear, and I do have a sense of humour – honestly.

If I had just witnessed a home win – or even a half-decent Bath performance – then I’m confident that I would have been able to raise a smile, even if only a rueful one. As it was, however, ‘Singing in the Rain’ went down rather less well than it was obviously intended to. The ‘joke’ was lost on large parts of the capacity crowd that had assembled earlier as many had left long before the end of the game. Our Ringside stand was less than a quarter full after half-time.

Some of us remained until the bitter end as, having embarked on our 150-mile round trip that morning, it seemed even more ludicrous in the circumstances to travel back without actually watching all of the match we had come to see.

All regular supporters who watch their rugby at The Rec (save for the privileged few who enjoy the benefit of a roof) will have got wet – on a scale from damp to soaked – on many previous occasions, and have seen two sides struggling with the elements as well as each other.

This time was quite different, however, at least in my experience. One team mastered the difficult conditions by employing a suitably limited gameplan and executing it with intelligence and as much skill as could be expected on the night. Sadly, that team was not Bath.

Two seasons ago, Bath hosted Gloucester in a night match played on a treacherous pitch; Gloucester played their full part in a marvellous spectacle, defending heroically for most of the 80 minutes. Bath were superb, displaying marvellous handling skills which were scarcely believable at the time, running out 10-5 winners at the end of a full-on contest which also provided high-level entertainment.

It was ‘Rugby heaven’ really; in stark contrast to last Saturday night, which left me wondering precisely what we had done to deserve being condemned to such misery on the eastern bank of the River Styx (sorry, Avon).

I hadn’t ever seen Bath fail to score a single point at The Rec in the 12 years I have been watching them, and the last time I saw ‘Bath 0’ on any final scoreboard was over 10 years ago at Loftus Road, when Messrs Haag and Catt played, and Wasps scored 35 points without reply.

We do suffer, we supporters, when things don’t go well on or off the field. We invest a significant amount of emotion in our team, our club, not to mention a hefty sum of money and a considerable quantity of time in pursuing our devotion to the blue, black and white jersey. As a consequence, we expect rather a lot in return from those who wear it.

The minimum required is effort and application. This has certainly not been lacking for most of the season, despite what some have felt after the occasional ‘team didn’t turn up’ performance, like that in Ulster and now against London Irish.

The other expectation is that, for most of the time, the players will individually and collectively perform at a level that does justice to their undoubted talent.

We know, as well as they do, how good they can be. We’ve seen and admired their skills and strengths over the last couple of seasons - as well as noting the areas of weakness for the coaches to address.

As supporters we’ve also got a pretty good idea of what’s actually going wrong and why we are losing so often, and sometimes so badly. What most of us don’t have, however, is anything more than speculative insight into why this season has been so unremittingly disappointing so far.

It is an inescapable conclusion that the level of talent in the squad – stronger in most areas than last year – has in no way been reflected in the level of performance. The question is why – and it is a question that most of the soaked and dispirited Bath supporters streaming out of The Rec on Saturday cannot claim to be able to answer.

It’s obvious that the actual reasons lie behind the changing room doors at Lambridge and in the Clubhouse and, perhaps, in the ‘top two inches’ of some of the players and coaching staff, who do not seem to be on the same wavelength at all.

We supporters cannot see through those doors so, frustratingly, we can only surmise as to what the real causes are.

Frankly, if the team starts to play to its potential, and therefore win some games sooner rather than later, I for one won’t care about the turmoil of last summer, as we will really have moved on from there.

We have not been able to do so yet though, unlike Harlequins supporters, who arguably endured a rather worse experience than we did but have since been able to watch their team begin to recover lost ground.

If the current depression fails to lift soon we shall all need rather more than effective waterproofs in the new year.

So, please change the record, Alistair - my sense of humour just can’t cope at the moment.