JOHN Brain has apologised to fans after Worcester Warriors slumped to a third consecutive defeat -- but he is refusing to criticise the effort of his players.

The director of rugby was delighted that an army of fans made the 500-mile round-trip to New-castle and was hoping to reward them with a win.

"I think the support played a tremendous part on New Year's Day," he said. "I would like to thank all the supporters who made the trip.

"We thanked them after the match, which is not easy to do when you lose the game. We would like to apologise for the result."

Despite the 21-15 defeat, which comes on the back of reverses against Connacht and Bath, Brain insists he could not ask for any more from the players in terms of attitude.

"I can't fault the players' effort, commitment or work-rate," he said. "I think we have obviously got to look after the ball when we are on the attack and take our chances.

"Both tries we conceded at the weekend, we were on the opposition's 22-metre line in possession. On the second occasion we were odds-on to get something out of it. It's those areas that are costing us matches."

The defeats against Bath and Newcastle have taken the gloss off an excellent start to the campaign by Warriors but they still go into the second half of the campaign in sixth place in the table.

"It's frustrating because we could easily have won both those matches," said Brain. "We would expect to beat Bath at home and Newcastle away is a game we could win."

Brain believes they can get back on track when Northampton visit on Saturday, provided they cut out the mistakes that have dogged their recent performances.

"I think it's not so much anxiety," he said. "It comes down to poor communication and lack of understanding of what other people are doing."

Brain is hoping Shane Drahm will be fit to return against his former club, even though a sore ankle prevented him training yesterday.

Stand-in skipper Tony Windo has had a precautionary X-ray after he was stamped on in the Newcastle match but is expected to be fit, as is Thomas Lombard, who turned his ankle at Kingston Park.

But it's not all good news for Worcester, who will be without the injured Pat Sanderson, Chris Horsman, Nicolas Le Roux and Tim Collier.