"I'll love it if we beat them, love it!" -- the immortal words of Kevin Keegan wound up into a frenzy after falling victim to the now legendary mind-games of Sir Alex Ferguson.

The present England manager struggled to keep hold of his sanity during the season where his Newcastle United side went head to head with Fergie's Manchester United for the Premiership crown.

Ferguson turned Keegan into a man gripped by anger, frothing at the mouth in front of the TV cameras after reacting to comments Ferguson had made in the media relating to the championship race.

Psychology has always played a big part in sport and today, with managers and coaches being asked to comment on this, that and the other, the scope to manipulate and spread mischief through the media is greater than ever.

Manchester Rugby Club's Alex Keay tried to play mind-games with Worcester last week in the build-up to the weekend's game only to see it backfire -- spectacularly!

The director of rugby at Grove Lane claimed Worcester were the biggest under-achievers in rugby history in the last three years, adding the Sixways side would get little respect from him and his side.

However, Friday's Evening News only served to fire up Adrian Skeggs' men even before the 40-12 win on Saturday. Skeggs even pinned up the article around the dressing room to motivate his side. There was only ever going to be one winner after that!

For many of the new players at Sixways, the criticism would not have hurt but for individuals like Nick Baxter, who has been at the club for a number of years, Keay's words hit a raw nerve.

To Worcester and Skeggs' credit -- the side reacted to the words in the right manner and went out and won the game easily. Their discipline was also good and if there was ever an area which might have been affected by the wind-up it could have been the discipline.

They are a professional club though and showed just what they are in the game for -- to win rugby matches, not to have slanging matches.

Keay obviously wanted to distract the Worcester players' focus and at the same time talk his own team's chances up. However, the tried and trusted mind-game is to butter your opponents up before matches, never slag them off.

You can say what you like about the opposition in the dressing room but there is little point winding them up before the game in the Press. All it does is give the other side an extra motivation to go out there and prove a point.

Adversity is sometimes a positive motivational tool for coaches. It's fair to say Worcester are stamped wherever they go. They are the team with all the money -- the Fancy Dans of the division, there to be shot down.

As a coach, you can turn that around into a siege mentality. If your players think the world is against them then they will have the extra incentive to prove everybody else wrong. I'm sure that ingredient will be a vital part of Worcester's title bid this season.

They can be proud of the way they acquitted themselves at Manchester. Nothing pretty but a solid performance and a win which sees them four points clear in National League Division One after just three games.

However, there is a long way to go and, if Worcester are to take the title, they will undoubtedly come up against more psychological tests on the way.

You sense, though, that nothing is going to divert the focus of Geoff Cooke and Skeggs this season. And when push comes to shove there will be no substitute for sheer class on the rugby pitch, something Keay didn't have. Just watch he isn't carrying any voodoo dolls around with him when he arrives at Sixways for the next chapter in the phoney war of words in March!