JOHN Brain slammed Worcester's performance at Goldington Road but admitted he was pleased with the result.

"We're not happy with the performance," said the director of rugby.

"We created problems for ourselves and we're just relieved to get out of Bedford with five points. The massive positive for us is the result. It's nice to be able to under-perform like that and come away with all the points."

Both Worcester's hookers had an off-day on the sloping pitch and Brain believed that lack of ball cost the Warriors.

"There were some problems with the throw in and maybe we didn't react particularly well," added Brain.

"To be fair to Bedford, they'd done their homework on our lineout. The combination of the two factors contributed to the fact that we didn't see much ball.

"We just didn't have a lineout platform. That aspect of our game has been reliable now for a long time and it just didn't function. That was one of the reasons why we spent most of the first half defending.

"It's difficult to play without that platform."

Brain could, however, take little from the match other than the five points and the result.

"We've dogged it out in the second half," he said. "We didn't play any fluent rugby but we've still come here to Goldington Road and left with five points. We're happy with the result and the guys can take some credit from the fact that this isn't an easy place to come and we've got all the points.

"The manner in which we've done it, though, isn't good enough."

Dean Thomas became Worcester's third player to be yellow carded this season to go with Chris Hall's opening day sending off. And Brain was far from happy with another example of indiscipline.

"We took a silly yellow card just after half time and that just put more pressure on the team," he added.

"The referee had no choice but to sin-bin Dean. It was an obvious offence."