WORCESTER fans need not panic despite their side still searching for a first Guinness Premiership win of the season, according to Newcastle coach John Fletcher.

Having watched his Falcons team scrape a 15-12 victory over Warriors at Kingston Park yesterday, Fletcher insisted: "If Worcester play like that every week, then they've got nothing to worry about.

"They are a team with a big pack and a lot of quality in the back-line and I firmly believe it is only a matter of time before they start racking up a run of victories in the league."

Having seen his Newcastle team bailed out by the boot of Jonny Wilkinson while the visitors had three tries chalked off by referee Rob Debney, Fletcher said: "I don't think we could have complained too much if Worcester had sneaked the points, because they created more scoring chances.

"They came up here with the game-plan of slowing our ball down and to an extent it worked because the referee let them get away with killing the ball at every ruck. I'm amazed they kept 15 men on the field with the amount of penalties they conceded in key areas.

"On days like that you just have to kick your penalties and get on with it, which we did, but I have no doubt that Worcester will win a number of games this season based on this game."

With his Warriors counterpart Mike Ruddock under the cosh as Worcester still search for that elusive first league win, Fletcher said: "I have a lot of sympathy for Mike, because he has recruited extremely well but the results are just evading him at the moment.

"You have to have a huge amount of respect for a guy who has coached a Grand Slam winning team and I thought his side caused us a lot of problems.

"Our former player Loki Crichton was outstanding at fly-half, as was Sam Tuitupou in the centre, and they will always ask you questions through their driving game.

"I thought in the end we stood up well to their mauling play and, even if they didn't allow us much in the way of try-scoring chances, we just have to take the points and move on to the next game.

"It certainly wasn't the prettiest game and Worcester did not allow us the freedom to get in to our patterns."