PEOPLE often talk about sportsmen and women glibly as if they simply don't care about winning and losing.

It is an easy snipe and a self-satisfying attempt to vent their initial disappointment and frustrations after a poor result. Fair enough.

However, I can assure everyone involved with Worcester Rugby Club that our defeat to Coventry on Saturday hit me harder than anyone.

I was devastated and I know I wasn't the only one at the club. This week has been one of the worst for me for as long as I can remember.

Supporters have a right to be upset at the performance - it was not good enough - but it wasn't because of lack of effort or commitment we lost the game, we simply switched off at vital times and paid a very heavy price. Coventry deserved to win the match and credit must go to them because they came to Sixways with a game plan which worked well. We lost our discipline during the match and that is unacceptable for a professional team.

We were complacent, we started badly and were chasing the game after that. We cannot just turn up and expect to win just because we are at home. Coventry came out very aggressive, very motivated and we were behind before we actually settled down and woke up. We came back but then were penalised for silly things. We overdrove the line-out - which is my fault but the referee did say he would award a penalty try if Coventry pulled it down again. We overdid it with the forwards but, having said that, Chris Yates is a marked man at the moment and we are struggling to get him into the game.

We said at half time we'd all played poorly but were desperate to turn it around. Then we went out and gave two penalties away to leave us 23-8 behind which was always going to be difficult to come back from. We did come back though to 23-22 which was a great effort.

Sateki missed a penalty and a lot has been made about that but people should consider he had already kicked two fantastic conversions - you cannot blame him because we shouldn't have to be relying on penalties to win a game. In the end, we gave away a try in the last few minutes by looking for that final score which would have won the game. That is why, I think, the scoreline flattered them a little.

We've watched the match on video this week and picked it to pieces. There is a basic lesson to be learned. We have to treat every team with the same focus as we would Rotherham. Every team deserves the same amount of respect - it is the same in any sport. As soon as you turn off for a minute, you are in trouble - just ask Lennox Lewis. We cannot stand off anyone, we have to play for 80 minutes and find a better mixture of tactics in our game. Everyone plays out of their skin when they face us but we should not wallow in self pity, we have to use that as motivation.

It would be easy now to just be negative and think that's the end of the season. That's not what I'm about and the rest of the squad are intent on turning things around. We are only six games into a season for goodness sake and are four points off Rotherham. I also think it will help us being off the top because, to a certain extent, it takes some pressure off you. The pressure is now on them and I'm sure they'll trip up somewhere this season. I've always thought we would have to go to Rotherham and win and it's even more the case now.

It's been a bad week for everyone involved here. But we won't lie down and the quite justified criticism after the match has just made us more determined to show everyone what we are made of.

If you take the plaudits from the press and supporters when you do well, you have to accept criticism after such a result. Saturday was a setback but let's not go overboard. There is a long way to go this season and our cup game at Lydney will provide another test for us at the weekend. We owe it to ourselves and the supporters to make amends for the Coventry experience.

Mark my words, we'll do just that.

KINGSLEY JONES was talking to MARK DOBSON.