"There was quite a strong breeze favouring them in the first half, so we did very well to only concede one goal from that and then snatch one back before halftime."
The home team were on the scoreboard first, but one minute into injury time of the first half, City responded when the ball was played down the left side of the pitch to Bell.
Bell passed the ball into Jordan Joblin-Hall who combined well with Kyle Graham-Luke to get the ball back and score one-on-one against the keeper.
City scored again 10 minutes into the second half when Bell shot over an advancing keeper following a chip over the defensive line from Joblin-Hall, but it wasn't enough.
Marist were able to net two more goals, but that was through no fault of goalkeeper Merrick Slade who was named man of the match for making some very good saves.
Bell said his squad needs to work on their confidence.
"It is there, we had a half a dozen good chances despite the amount of possession they had, but we were just lacking on that final ball," he said.
"Moving forward at training this week, we just need to keep confident and trust that our style of football is going to do the job this weekend."
Versatile Wanganui City FC play bottom-placed Hokowhitu FC at Wembley Park this Saturday at 2.45pm.
