ALL Warriors fans look back fondly on Saturday, April 27, 2007, as it was the day John Brain’s Worcester battlers pulled off the ‘great escape’ to survive the dreaded drop.

The atmosphere inside Sixways on that final day of the campaign was something special as the hosts summoned up a tremendous display of heart, courage and sheer bloody-minded determination to beat Saracens 22-7.

Warriors somehow managed to win four of their last six games that term to pull off a remarkable survival bid as they finished a point ahead of relegated Northampton Saints.

However, the 2006-07 season didn’t begin well for Warriors as they lost their first eight outings in a row, before finally getting a ‘W’ on the board by winning 20-17 at Saracens in round nine.

The class of 2013 have matched that unenviable record so far this term and will have to evoke the spirit of 2007 to have a hope of avoiding a second visit to the Championship in the space of three seasons.

While Worcester under the late Brain were little more than workmanlike, they were fiercely committed and never gave an inch, with a set-piece that was feared across the league.

The team that beat Sarries on that day, which has since been etched into Sixways folklore, included a host of Warriors legends, the likes of Tony Windo, Dale Rasmussen, Craig Gillies, Aleki Lutui, Pat Sanderson and Tevita Taumoepeau.

Does Dean Ryan have similar characters in his squad for the younger members to turn to for guidance and inspiration during these tough times? Looking down the current squad list, you’d have to say no.

One day after the ‘great escape’, Brain was unceremoniously sacked with Mike Ruddock being announced as his replacement amid a triumphant fanfare.

Arguably, the club has lurched from one disaster to another since that day with a series of coaching appointments that have all proved damaging in their own ways.

Ruddock persuaded the board to part with vast wedges of cash to bring in ex-international outside-backs of waning powers when it was painfully obvious the big bucks needed to be spent at half-back.

The Grand Slam winner’s three-year reign, which was littered with reports of divisions within the camp and issues with ‘player power’, ultimately ended with relegation.

Richard Hill was brought in as the saviour and he duly delivered promotion in his first season back. However, his time at the club has arguably been the most damaging period in Worcester’s modern history.

The decision to all but disband the thriving Sixways academy to prevent other clubs poaching Worcester’s top young players was so devastatingly short-sided and tantamount to vandalism. The repercussions will be felt for years to come.

For what it’s worth, I truly believe that, in Ryan, Warriors have finally got the right man at the helm.

He is going about repairing the damage done by his predecessors and putting in place robust structures to make sure the mistakes of the past are never repeated.

Nobody concerned with the club wants another season in the Championship, but it is hard to see how that can be avoided at the moment.