LONG-SERVING full-back Chris Pennell insists his battle-hardened team-mates can draw on past experiences to get Worcester Warriors “out of the hole”.

With six games to go in the Gallagher Premiership struggling Warriors are just three points ahead of Newcastle Falcons who have won their last two matches.

Pennell said he “kind of expected” their rivals to stun Wasps 20-19 at The Ricoh Arena after Worcester lost 17-6 at Falcons in the previous round.

But the 31-year-old stressed the ball was still in Warriors’ court ahead of Saturday's showdown with Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate (3pm).

And having dug deep to beat the drop in recent seasons he believes the Sixways side know what it takes to avoid relegation again.

“It is desperately frustrating to be in this position,” said Pennell who has clocked up more than 200 appearances for Warriors since making his debut in 2007.

“But it’s not like we are not good enough.

THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS PENNELL FEATURES ON THIS WEEK'S WORCESTER WARRIORS PODCAST WHICH IS AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD FROM SOUNDCLOUD AND ITUNES

“You think back to the beginning of the season when we lost to Wasps, Newcastle and Sale. We should have won those games.

“If we had done and you add on those extra points then suddenly this season has a completely different look to it.

“But it is what it is. We find ourselves in this situation because of our own actions.

“From that point of view the ball is in our court. It’s up to us how we react to it.

“I kind of expected Newcastle to go and beat Wasps, partly because of the confidence that we gave them the previous weekend.

“We gave them a massive boost.”

Since gaining promotion to the Premiership for the first time in 2004 Warriors have only finished outside the bottom three twice, coming ninth and eighth in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

They were demoted in 2010 and 2014 but have also pulled off many great escapes which Pennell is looking to use as sources of inspiration.

“We have got some huge games coming up,” Pennell said..

“But the beauty of it is that we have been here before and we know what we need to do.

“We have got an experienced group of players who understand this type of pressure and understand what we need to bring and we have got some experienced coaches as well.

“It’s not new territory.

“It would be nice to be higher up in the league but it’s not to be at this stage.

“All we can do is get ourselves out of the mess that we have kind of created.”

Pennell scored Warriors’ fourth try as they salvaged two points from a 33-30 defeat to Exeter Chiefs at Sixways two weeks ago.

“The Exeter game showed that we perform better when we are under a bit of pressure to bounce back,” Pennell added.

“It’s not the right thing to do long term as we need to be able to find different ways of motivating ourselves.

“But it can be quite a powerful tool and we can draw on past experiences to get us out of the hole.”

THE RUN-IN.

WARRIORS - 28 points.

March 23 - Bristol Bears (A).

April 6 - Wasps (A).

April 13 - Sale Sharks (H).

April 28 - Gloucester (H).

May 4 - Northampton Saints (A).

May 18 - Saracens (H).

FALCONS - 25 points.

March 23 - Sale Sharks (H).

April 6 - Saracens (A).

April 12 - Leicester Tigers (H).

April 26 - Northampton Saints (H).

May 4 - Gloucester (A).

May 18 - Bristol Bears (H).