Director Of Cricket Steve Rhodes says Worcestershire's batsmen were "hurt" by their quickfire first innings dismissal and will be looking to redress the balance on the final day of the LV = County Championship clash with Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
Worcestershire were bowled out in just 42.5 overs in their first innings and they will resume in their second knock tomorrow on 88-2 in pursuit of a 437 target.
Skipper Daryl Mitchell showed typically fighting qualities in making 16 not out off 90 balls as Richard Oliver and Moeen Ali – the latter in the penultimate over of the day – both fell for 33.
Rhodes said: "Losing Moeen hurt us because he is a key player and he himself wanted some time at the crease.
"He got a little bit of that but he would have loved to be there overnight for a big innings tomorrow.
"It is a good test now for the rest of our batsmen tomorrow but the wicket at times, if you can get in, you can score runs on and we've got plenty of guys who can score runs in the dressing room.
"They will get that opportunity tomorrow.
"We were all out in the first innings for 42 overs, it hurt them, it hurt everybody, and I'm sure it hurt our fans but they've got a chance to put it right and spend some time at the crease and bat well tomorrow.
"I thought Daryl battled really hard tonight and thoroughly deserved to get through unscathed.
"That made possibly the dismissal of Moeen even more hurtful because it would be great to see the two of them in the morning.
"But that's not to be, that's history and I know Daryl is capable of batting all day and we've got a few more capable of batting the duration of a day.
"The ball is in their court to do that now."
Worcestershire reduced Warwckshire from their overnight 105-2 to 207-8 before Chris Wright and Boyd Rankin featured in an unbroken wicket stand of 114 in 30 overs.
Rhodes said: "We showed a lot of fight early on – and so did Warwickshire – and the stand was a killer for us really because we had a real chance of chasing a lot lower score than we thought we were expecting.
"We nearly did what we said last night which was to try and bowl them out today for another 100-120 runs.
"The partnership was excellent for Warwickshire and don't take anything away from Rankin and Wright.
"They batted well and sadly our bowlers were just running out of steam and the reason they ran out of steam was we only batted for 42 overs and did not give them enough time to rest up and recharge the batteries ready for the next onslaught.
"I can't knock the bowlers, they've tried really hard and we just desperately need to bat well again because it's a big score."
