Middlesex coach Richard Johnson admitted his side were on a 'bad run' after a seven-wicket defeat at Gloucestershire made it six in a row in the Vitality Blast.

Ollie Price produced a telling performance with bat and ball to guide the hosts to victory in an ultimately one-sided contest at Bristol's Seat Unique Stadium.

The Oxford-born all-rounder top-scored with 46 and shared in crucial partnerships of 60 with Miles Hammond and 52 with Zafar Gohar for the second and third wickets respectively as the hosts chased down a target of 140 with 10 balls to spare for a second win in three days.

Middlesex have struggled to post big totals in the short format this season and this match was no exception, the visitors struggling to build meaningful partnerships and coming up on 139-9 after being put into bat.

Jack Davies hit a defiant unbeaten 46 and Max Holden contributed a valuable 34, but veteran left-arm seamer David Payne claimed 2-21 and off spinner Price 2-18 as Gloucestershire took wickets at regular intervals to keep a lid on things.

Victorious in three of their last four outings, improving Gloucestershire kept alive their hopes of progressing to the knock-out stages, but Middlesex are already down and out, consigned to the foot of the South Group after losing their opening six games.

"We're on a bad run at the moment and we cannot quite find that magic formula at the end of games," said Johnson.

"We're putting good parts of the game together without managing to nail down the whole game. As a young side, it's important that we stay positive, but at the same time they have to keep learning and work out quickly how we can put these games together better as a whole.

"I know people don't want to hear it, because they want to see wins, but this is a process, and we've said that all along. We have a nucleus we believe in and we will use that going forward and add to it as the financial situation eases.

"Hopefully, we will be able to put some other people in and develop as we go along. At the moment, we have a lot of young players who are all at different stages and they are putting in decent individual performances. The problem is that we are not yet doing that as a whole."

Gloucestershire had reduced Surrey to 29-4 in the powerplay at Bristol 48 hours earlier and Payne had Stephen Eskinazi caught at the wicket in the act of driving recklessly while Joe Cracknell hoisted Danny Lamb to square leg as Middlesex lurched to 20-2 in the third over.

But the home side then blotted their copybook when Holden, still to get off the mark, was put down at point by Matt Taylor off the bowling of Zafar Gohar with the score on 26.

He and Pieter Malan advanced the score to a respectable 45-2 at the end of the six-over powerplay as the visitors sought to make the most of their good fortune. But Gloucestershire continued to press hard and Price had Malan caught at long-on for a 19-ball 21 and Zafar bowled former team-mate Ryan Higgins for one as Middlesex, struggling to contend with spin from both ends, were reduced to 52-4 in the eighth over. 

Holden led a fightback of sorts, partially rebuilding the innings with a fifth-wicket stand of 24 with Josh de Caires, and he hoisted Matt Taylor for the first six of the match, and added a quartet of fours in a progressive innings that yielded 34 from 22 balls. 

Veteran slow left armer Tom Smith eventually put paid to Holden's antics, luring him into a trap that saw him hit straight to Price at deep mid-wicket as Middlesex slipped to 76-5 in the 11th.

A good deal of responsibility resting on their shoulders, de Caires and Davies ran hard between the wickets and scored at slightly better than a run-a-ball in adding 29 for the sixth wicket. But Gloucestershire stuck to their task and de Caires, having made 18 from 20 balls, hoisted Price to substitute fielder Zaman Akhter at long-on with the score on 105, while Luke Hollman was run out for one by Smith's throw from deep backward square as Middlesex slumped to 114-7 in the 16th.

Tom Helm fell cheaply to the returning Payne, who applied concerted pressure at the death, but Davies batted with real purpose to finish four runs short of a half-century, his 33-ball innings containing three fours and a six. Blake Cullen stayed with him long enough to stage a ninth-wicket alliance of 22 in 20 balls, but there was no escaping the strong suspicion the Londoners had fallen short.

Promoted to open after his record-breaking 19-ball 50 against Essex last week, Ben Charlesworth was stumped off the bowling of de Caires for 12 as Gloucestershire lost their first wicket for 24 in the fourth over.

Also pushed up the order, Hammond made a better fist of things, twice cover driving Cullen to the boundary and stepping down the track and hitting Thilan Walallawita down the ground to make it 43-1 while the fielding restrictions were in place.

Cautious beginnings gave way to adventure on the part of Price, 21, who tucked into spinners de Caires and Walallawita to provide crucial momentum, plundering a brace of fours off de Caires in the sixth over and repeating the feat against Walallawita in the ninth, as Gloucestershire reached 73-1 at halfway.

They were well-served by a second-wicket pair who accumulated in a controlled fashion to lay the foundations for a successful chase and, by the time Hammond squirted a catch to extra cover off the bowling of Hollman, the partnership was worth 60, with the Cheltenham-born left-hander having contributed 34 from 38 balls with four fours, as the rate remained at just over a run a ball.

Four runs from a maiden T20 half-century, Price over-balanced and fell to a sharp stumping by Davies but Zafar was unbeaten on 37 from 22 balls, with a six and threefours, when skipper Jack Taylor hit the winning run.