WARRIORS skipper Jonathan Thomas has appealed to the Worcester faithful to stick with the team as the poor start to the season goes on.

The former Wales international insists the players and coaches are doing everything in their power to turn around the slump that has seen Worcester lose five games on the bounce this term.

In fact, including last season, Warriors now have lost their last 10 Aviva Premiership matches — a dismal run stretching back to March 1 when they beat London Wasps 29-23.

The Sixways side are rooted to the foot of the table with just two losing bonus points to show for their efforts, but everyone at the club remains confident they can turn things around.

However, the club’s fans are not so convinced and took to various social media sites after Saturday’s 16-11 defeat by Newcastle to vent their collective spleen.

Warriors fly-half Ignacio Mieres and centre Josh Matavesi even entered into angry Twitter exchanges with supporters critical of Worcester’s performance.

The tweets concerned were clearly said in the heat of the moment and soon deleted but go a long way to show how frustrated both fans and players are with the current situation.

In hindsight, Matavesi then tweeted: “By the way 99.9 per cent of Warriors fans are awesome and are the most loyal and passionate fans about.”

Mieres added: “Frustrating result and performance on Saturday. Thank you for all the support! This will change soon.”

Club captain Thomas said: “The fans were outstanding. Every time we pull on that shirt we want to do well for them and we’re gutted that we aren’t able to give them something to cheer about.

“But we desperately need them to keep the faith and we are confident we can turn this around and give them something to smile about.”

Warriors now take a break from Premiership action and this week travel to France to face Oyonnax in the Amlin Challenge Cup on Saturday.

Worcester director of rugby Dean Ryan said: “Oyonnax away isn’t the easiest place to go as Toulon, Clermont and everyone else have found out, so it will be a challenge for us.

“We do have to freshen the group up because we’ve been using the same 14 or 15 guys every week.

“We don’t have a huge amount of choice but we have to find some way. It’s a chance for some other players to impress.”