WARRIORS’ interim chief executive Anthony Glossop has pinpointed the lack of a reliable goal-kicker as one of the main reasons Worcester suffered Aviva Premiership relegation.

Poor form from the kicking tee regularly hampered Warriors’ attempts to win matches last term with Paul Warwick and Ignacio Mieres both failing to impress with the boot.

Ryan Lamb was brought in from Leicester mid-season and, although he added much more dynamism to Worcester’s back play, he too was hot and cold with his kicking.

Full-back Chris Pennell showed glimpses of his potential with an inspired kicking display against Leicester at Sixways, but was otherwise inconsistent when aiming for goal.

Andy Goode was Warriors’ number 10 last season but he left to join Aviva Premiership rivals Wasps in the summer, along with fellow Sixways fly-half Joe Carlisle. Glossop, temporarily at the helm following the departure of chief executive Charles Cameron, said: “I am not pro or anti-Andy Goode, but if we had an established, on-song goal-kicker throughout the year, that might also have made the difference.

“He was our marquee player when he was here and I don’t know how much Wasps are paying him, but if it had been American football and you could bring a man off the bench to kick penalties and conversions, then I would always have had him in the squad.

“But, if you take a game as a totality, you are not building for the future with a player like that.”

He continued: “Ideally, we had him for three years and we should have grown a number 10 alongside him, so we could have said ‘Thank you very much Andy, you’ve done exactly what we wanted you to do and you can go with our good blessing as we now have this bloke to take over’.

“We didn’t achieve that and if there is a criticism, it was failure to grow youngsters at the same time as investing in big-name players.

“If there is one thing I am absolutely certain about with Dean (Ryan), it is that we will not make that mistake again.”