PLAY-OFF week four: Three down and six to go. At the half-way stage of the mini-league, we find ourselves again at the top and looking good for qualifying for a home semi-final.

Friday night’s match at Nottingham once again saw victory for the Warriors, however our performance was not one we would have hoped for.

Everything went well last week in terms of our preparation — our training was good and the buzz before the game was superb, the best it has been in a while. Unfortunately, we compounded errors early on allowing Nottingham into the match by conceding some harsh, but avoidable penalties.

We were frustrated by our lack of accuracy overall and let ourselves down by making some basic errors in key positions. We had many opportunities to score, but failed to convert most of our chances. This we will get right for Saturday’s return match with Nottingham at Sixways.

Despite not playing well for most of the game, we did, at times, play some great rugby. Looking back at the footage this week, I was able to take out a great deal more positives than I realised at the time on Friday.

Miles Benjamin and Marcel Garvey crossed the whitewash yet again to keep their impressive tallies rolling. For me, Chris Fortey made a huge impact not only on the field, but off it too. He is a great motivator and really gets the boys firing. It was great to see his hard work rewarded with a try.

The subs came on and made a good impact again with the big men showing their physicality with some hard hits and strong ball-carries. Dale Rasmussen provided some go-forward for the backs and Aleki Lutui did what he does best.

Friday was tainted with a couple of injuries and niggles. James Collins took a nasty knee to the head and has some concussion but, having spoken with him yesterday, he seems to be recovering well.

Neil Best and myself came away with rib injuries but both are settling down. Fortunately we are lucky enough to be blessed with strength in depth in these departments.

In summary, we won without really showing Nottingham what we are about. We are desperate to show them on Saturday what we represent as a team and win convincingly in front of our home fans. They will be confident after Friday, but we have a point to prove.

The last time Nottingham ventured to Sixways they left with good memories of running the top side close and scoring four tries.

They will no doubt have picked up a couple of knocks themselves after our pack dominated up front. They do, however, look to be welcoming back hooker Tom Youngs, a key go-forward player and a physical presence in defence.

Their injury-time score on Friday night means they will come with some momentum. We must change that right from the kick-off.

Saturday will see us get back on track. If the atmosphere reaches anything like it did in Nottingham, thanks to the amazing away support, Sixways will be an intimidating fortress for the boys in green.

Oh yes, and please look out for Nottingham full-back David Jackson — the worst/best mullet since Andre Agassi in the 80s.