WORCESTER Warriors suffered another narrow loss as they made it four Gallagher Premiership defeats in a row against play-off chasing Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate.

Eight points from Bears’ fly-half Callum Sheedy proved decisive as the home side jumped into the top three of the Gallagher Premiership and continued their push for a semi-final place at the end of the regular season.

Discipline was again an issue as Warriors conceded 14 penalties in total, including nine in the first half alone, and received two yellow cards as Worcester slumped to another agonising defeat.

Nick David scored for the second week running following his debut last week just after half-time to bring Worcester back into the game but eight points from Sheedy and a Luke Morahan try was enough to seal the win.

The first half was a scrappy affair with both sides creating half-chances but handling errors and a lack of a clinical edge meant there was no score until the 20th minute thanks to a Sheedy penalty.

With half-time looming Bristol produced a moment of quality to open up a 10-0 lead at the break.

A quick tap from scrum-half Harry Randall from 30 metres out caught Warriors napping and his pass inside to Sheedy allowed him to put Morahan into open space for a run-in from close range.

The second half started in the perfect possible way for Warriors as some strength from Ollie Lawrence in the tackle opened up a hole for Ethan Waller to run into and he then handed the ball over to Scott van Breda on the wing.

The South African could well have finished it off himself but David ran an intelligent inside line and van Breda gifted the youngster another try.

Duncan Weir’s conversion made it a three-point match but moments later the poor discipline reared its head again and this time referee JP Doyle brandished a yellow card to Cornell du Preez for a high tackle.

Despite going down a man Warriors kept the Bears at bay and even levelled the scores through a long-range van Breda penalty in the 68th minute.

Just as the away side looked to be gaining the upper hand, another yellow card, this time for substitute Andrew Kitchener, halted momentum and Sheedy slotted a penalty to put the home side back in front.

Worcester tried to battle back but in the end they fell short and it was another sickening defeat for Alan Solomons’ third-from-bottom men.