WORCESTER Warriors' dir-ector of rugby John Brain said the club's aim was still to reach the knock-out stages of the competition despite their lack-lustre performance ag-ainst Amatori Catania.

Brain said there were no excuses for the scrappy and frustrating display from the squad: "It was very disappointing from our point of view -- we didn't play at all well," he said.

"I don't think we were in any danger of losing the game, but they battled well and we just couldn't turn our possession into points. We've all got to look at ourselves after a performance like that.

"I think Catania are desperate to try and win a game and they seized on every scrap of possession. We can't hide behind anything, effectively we failed to capitalise on opportunities throughout the game."

"We've won the match but missed out on the bonus point which is not ideal. It could be worse but I think as far as performances go, collectively and individually most of our team have been under-par.

"We expect hard games when we play both Montpellier and Connacht and with Connacht's victory over Montpellier, the group is now wide open.

"Connacht are now our main threat and we've got to go there and get a result or go to Montpellier and get a result, that's what it boils down to really."

Brain made no secret last season that the European competition was at the bottom of the list for the Warriors behind ensuring their survival in the Premiership and putting on a good performance in the national cup.

This season, however, he's determined to shine in the newly-revamped European Challenge Cup.

"I think it's a well organised competition and it's good for players to experience playing against different rugby cultures," he said.

"I've said before that we've targeted winning our group and qualifying for the quarter finals.

"We're still on course for that, we've got nine points from two games but we know that there are harder games to come.

"If we dwelled too much on the negatives then we'd still be here for a month or more as there were not too many positives to be taken from that game.

"We've got to re-group, work hard this week and concentrate on how we're going to beat Leicester on Friday."