But they certainly had their chances in the 16-13 defeat to Sarries, only to find the Premiership's side's resolute defence to be nigh on unbreachable.
And Holley was left counting the cost of a few key mistakes that proved crucial in a closely-fought second half.
"We're hurting. The stats will tell you that we dominated territory and possession, we played all the rugby, and only conceded from a charge down which is frustrating," he said.
"All credit to Saracens they came down with an outstanding defence. We found it difficult to break them down in the end and we made too many errors which cost us dearly.
"The story is all about a couple of near misses and a couple of errors at crucial times that cost us. I can't fault the players in their effort and their attitude.
"They really went for it. They didn't leave anything out on the field so I couldn't ask much more of them really other than to tidy up a few bits of accuracy."
The normally trustworthy boot of Dan Biggar was misfiring in the second-half but Holley admitted that his side had wasted plenty of other chances to put the game to bed.
"Dan has kicked us to plenty of wins, he missed two that were uncharacteristic of him but I'm not going to criticise him because he's a consummate professional and a great kicker," he added.
"We should really have put more points on the board over the line. We fell short a couple of times, Ashley Beck a couple of times, and on another day we're over.
"You can't afford to lose your home games. Treviso and Biarritz will still have a say in things now but we've just got to give it our best shot and hope for the best.
"We've lost a proud six-year record, we don't like losing at home and we don't lose here often but it's taken a resolute defence to stop us.
"We've got to go out and do what we can do in the last two games. We won't lie down, we'll come out fighting over Christmas and we'll see what happens in the last two rounds."
63x46.png){kind=logo}