WARRIORS came up agonisingly short in their bid for a fourth consecutive win but at least came back up the M5 with what could prove an invaluable bonus point.

It might have been different but for a controversial incident in injury-time which saw Worcester lock Craig Gillies shown a red card for stamping on flanker Jo El Abd.

The visitors were mauling to within yards of their opponents' line and referee Wayne Barnes had awarded a penalty against Bristol for bringing the maul down before his touch judge informed him of the stamping incident.

El Abd was on the ground and clearly impeding Gillies, for which he himself was sin-binned, but the Worcester man paid an even heavier price and now faces the possibility of a ban which will keep him out for the rest of the season.

Just as expensively, the penalty was reversed and Warriors' chance of snatching a last-gasp victory had gone.

The outcome was a fair reflection of how the game had gone. John Brain's side show-ed flashes of fluent passing rugby but were denied ball by Bristol's ageing forwards.

Injuries to Worcester's two most senior scrum-halves, Matt and Ryan Powell, meant a rare start for youngster Nick Runciman with academy player Jonny Arr on the bench. Runciman didn't disgrace himself by any means and looks to have the makings of a top-class number nine.

Skipper Pat Sanderson re-turned to the fray after recovering from a fractured hand, while prop Chris Horsman was back in a Worcester shirt for the first time since his try-scoring appearance for Wales against England in the Six Nations last month.

Bristol's experienced pack dominated the opening ex-changes and supplied plenty of ball for their dangerous runners from deep. They had a chance to take the lead after just four minutes but Danny Gray missed a penalty.

Shane Drahm made no such mistake with his three-pointer eight minutes later but, just as the visitors went ahead, Bris-tol embarked on their best period of the match in which they scored two tries.

Firstly, the impressive David Lemi squeezed over in the corner and then they cut Worces-ter apart through the middle with captain Gareth Llewellyn supplying the ball for Sam Cox to burst through.

Gray converted the second of those tries to give Bristol a 12-3 advantage but, Warriors hit back in remarkable fashion at the end of the first-half.

They produced one of their best passing moves for many a game, which almost resulted in a try for Drew Hickey. The number eight was dragged down just short but the ball was recycled and Aisea Havili floated a pass out to Mark Tucker to score wide left.

Drahm potted the difficult conversion attempt.

Then, almost five minutes into first-half injury time, they found themselves in the lead when Thinus Delport made a try out of nothing with a superb jinking run and Drahm made no mistake with the kick.

For much of the second-half, Bristol were the only side in it and, but for some terrific Wor-cester defence, would have ran away with the match. Lemi eventually wriggled over close to the left-hand touch-line and, inside the last 10 minutes, Gray snatched a drop goal.

But the visitors had chances to win, not least when Delport knocked the ball forward as he attempted to latch onto Runciman's punt.

Warriors: Drahm; Havili (Lombard), Rasmussen, Tucker, Delport, Brown (Best), Runciman, Morris, C Fortey, Horsman (Windo), Gillies, Murphy (Blaze), Horstmann, Sanderson, Hickey (Quinnell).

Referee: Wayne Barnes.

Attendance: 8,516.