BOSS Mike Ruddock was left to rue three controversial disallowed efforts which cost Worcester Warriors a potential first Guinness Premiership win of the season.

Warriors fell 15-12, their ninth league defeat of the season, at Newcastle Falcons courtesy of a late drop goal from Jonny Wilkinson.

Having seen his side dominate much of the proceedings, Ruddock was again bemoaning a possible victory that got away but refused to be too downhearted.

However, official Rob Debney pulled Warriors' players back on three occasions when they looked to have crossed the line for tries.

Ruddock said: "I intend to speak to the referee because I believe we scored a number of good tries which were not awarded.

"That's something I would normally do as a matter of course anyway after a game (speaking to the referee) but the players are adamant that we had a number of perfectly legal tries chalked off which has obviously cost us dear.

"Aleki Lutui said on the first occasion he got the ball down and was then flipped over and, in the second-half, he definitely got the ball over the line.

"Thinus Delport then races over in the second-half but it is called back for a forward pass which we felt was a very big call against us. I haven't seen the replays but we felt we scored them."

Ruddock chose not to tear in to his defeated side, who caused problems for Falcons and moved two points away from bottom-of-the-table Leeds thanks to their bonus point.

"We came here to put Newcastle under pressure and try to make them play from deep, and we did that," he said.

"Newcastle made the most of their opportunities but we looked very much a threatening outfit - it wasn't quite enough.

"We will press on. There is a long way to go and if we play like that, we won't be so near the bottom of the table for long.

"There are 12 games to go and if we play the way we did against Newcastle we will score points and climb away from the foot of the table.

"Our defence was excellent but we have got to stop giving away too many penalties.

"When you look at the quality in our game and the way we played in attack and defence we look a real threat.

"I don't want to take anything away from Newcastle, I admire the way they play but ultimately we dealt with them.

"We edged the game and were the better team on the day, even if that was not shown on the scoreboard.

"We looked like a top-half team and, if we cut out the penalties, the rest of our game looks in good shape."