Mike Ruddock believes Worcester showed enough spirit in the defeat to London Irish to have hope in their battle against the drop.
Worcester boss believes spirited side can beat drop
Worcester boss Mike Ruddock remains hopeful his bottom placed side can achieve Guinness Premiership survival - despite their 23-12 home reverse to London Irish.
The Exiles won thanks to tries from Delon and Steffon Armitage, with Chris Malone adding 13 points from the boot, while the hosts could not capitalise on an early Alex Grove touchdown which was converted by Willie Walker, who also kicked two penalties.
The defeat leaves the Warriors three points adrift of Leeds Carnegie at the bottom - whom they must play on April 25 - with just three games remaining.
While disappointed by the home defeat, Ruddock believes his side showed enough spirit to have hope in their battle against the drop.
He said: "We talked about having four battles ahead of us. We've lost the first one, and we need to regroup for the next one.
"We are not dispirited. The effort is there, the spirit is there, which gives me hope we can get ourselves out of the pickle we are in.
"It's just that little bit of precision we have missed this season, and some of the errors we made went against us.
"I thought we put a good effort in, but we weren't quite good enough against a good Irish team.
"There is tons of spirit in this (Worcester) team to do well. At the end of the day, all I can ask is for the players to go out and give 100%."
Big bonus
Irish attack coach Mike Catt was delighted with a 'big bonus' four-point haul, which boosted their Guinness Premiership play-off hopes.
The Exiles are now fourth in the table, three points above Wasps, as they push for another play-off appearance following their narrow Premiership final defeat against Leicester last term.
Catt said: "To collect four points away from home, we can't complain.
"It is always tough coming here, and if we are highly critical we possibly could have got a winning bonus point, but four points away from home after losing against Wasps last week is a big bonus for us.
"We had to work on our defence after the Wasps game, and we need to be a bit more clinical. It's about patience and not going for the miracle pass straightaway."
Catt also praised a "massive" performance by Steffon Armitage, who again displayed his credentials ahead of England's summer tour to New Zealand and Australia.
But it was not all good news for the visitors, who lost hooker James Buckland in the first half with a broken thumb.
