DIRECTOR of rugby Alan Solomons insisted “we only have ourselves to blame” after Worcester Warriors were edged out 23-20 by Newcastle Falcons at Sixways.

It was the third successive Gallagher Premiership game Worcester had come away with one point as Toby Flood’s penalty on 73 minutes separated the two sides.

But having lost all three of their opening matches Warriors now sit at the foot of the table and Solomons stressed they were the authors of their own misfortune against Falcons.

“We only have ourselves to blame for losing that game,” Solomons said.

“Our game management at key moments in the game wasn’t good enough, our line-out struggled and we weren’t accurate enough in our execution.

“We paid a price for those.”

Warriors were 14-0 down inside the opening 12 minutes as scrum-half Sonatane Takulua and wing Sinoti Sinoti crossed the whitewash.

A three-pointer from fly-half Duncan Weir and a penalty try on the stroke of half-time gave Worcester hope as centre Johnny Williams and hooker George McGuigan were sin-binned in quick succession.

Despite having 13 men for the first seven minutes of the second half Falcons struck first with Flood notching a penalty.

But Warriors drew level at 17-17 thanks to a well-worked try from Weir on 51 minutes which the stand-off converted.

Full-back Chris Pennell and Flood then exchanged penalties before the latter stepped up to dispatch what proved to be the match-winning kick.

“We had opportunities which we will go through with the players,” Solomons said.

“But the way that we played and the execution wasn’t good enough.

“Just on half-time we got the penalty try and we were in a really strong position as they had two men down.

“That’s when we needed to turn the screw and unfortunately we didn’t.

“They played for field position the whole afternoon.

“We ran everything back and they came out more successfully than we did out of that particular contest.”

With only 12 seconds left on the clock Newcastle were penalised inside their own half.

A penalty for Warriors would have tied the game but the hosts chose to set-up an attacking line-out in a bid to snatch victory.

The chance was spurned as Jono Lance coughed up the ball at the death but Solomons backed his side’s decision to go for the win.

“Penns would have judged whether he thought he could make it,” Solomons said.

“If he thought he couldn’t make it which I assume was the position then that’s fair enough.

“If he hasn’t got confidence in making that kick then he can’t take that.”

On Lance’s knock-on, Solomons added: “In fairness (Jono Lance) was not the only one who made errors, let’s be perfectly honest about that.

“Anton Bresler made an error just before that so there was not one player who you could point a finger at and single out.

“As a team individuals don’t win or lose games. It is a manifestation of the way the team is playing when an individual does something (wrong).”