WORCESTER Warriors chief Alan Solomons says his players learned lessons from their mauling at Sale Sharks and are ready to go into battle with another “gritty” northern outfit on Saturday (3pm).

Fourth-placed Newcastle Falcons will arrive at Sixways on the crest of a wave after winning four of their past five Aviva Premiership games.

And Dean Richards’ men will be confident of boosting their top-four hopes with victory over a Warriors team who are on a run of three straight losses.

Worcester conceded eight tries in a 58-25 thrashing by Sale at the AJ Bell Stadium in their last league game.

But Solomons insisted his team had “drawn a line in the sand” and were keen to bounce back against Newcastle who he felt were similar to Sale.

“The Monday (after the game) was obviously a tough day for everybody,” said Solomons whose side are 10 points above the drop zone.

“We did the team reviews and the one on ones but we had to put it to bed.

“We had to learn the lessons from that game and move forward.

“We have drawn a line in the sand as we know this is going to be a tough encounter and we need to be at our best.

“There are similarities (between Sale and Newcastle).

“They are from the north and are both gritty and like to play with ball in hand."

Solomons highlighted backs Vereniki Goneva and Sinoti Sinoti as threats but admitted ex-England fly-half Toby Flood was “crucial” to the way Falcons play.

“Toby is an experienced player and has got a good rugby brain,” Solomons said.

“But if you focus on an individual you will lose focus on the team.

“All sides in the Premiership have really good players and threats across the park so the big thing for us is to get our own game right.”

Warriors lost 35-8 at Newcastle in September but have won nine of their past 10 meetings with Falcons at Sixways.

“We need to respond positively after what was a very poor performance against Sale,” Solomons added.

“Throughout life you will learn lessons so whoever we were playing next I think we would have taken what we learned against Sale forward.”