Director of rugby Dai Young was unimpressed with Wasps' performance, despite the 40-33 bonus point win over Worcester at the Ricoh Arena.
The win puts Wasps five points clear of Exeter at the top of the Aviva Premiership but they struggled to quell the spirit of a resilient Worcester, who were level at 19-19 when Bryce Heem was red carded in the 45th minute for a reckless challenge on Willie Le Roux.
Up until that incident, despite not having the benefit of some marginal decisions from referee Luke Pearce, Worcester were the better team but numerical advantage and the class of Christian Wade were just enough to see the hosts to a nervy win.
Wade scored two tries for them, taking his tally to 79 for the club to draw level with Kenny Logan at the top of their scoring chart.
Will Rowlands, Josh Bassett, Brendan Macken and Alapati Leiua also crossed with Jimmy Gopperth adding four conversions and Danny Cipriani one.
Young said: "It's a win and five points but there were very few areas of our game that pleased me.
"Worcester won nearly all the 50-50s and were first to react in terms of mind and deed and our performance didn't match the five points.
"Christian was probably the difference but I always thought that we could respond if we needed to as we probably had that extra bit of quality.
"It was a big message to us as we will have to be better against Leinster next week as they will match us for quality so we'll have to prove that we've got the belly for the fight."
A whole-hearted effort from Worcester saw them pick up two bonus points, which moved them nine clear of Bristol at the bottom of the table with only four games remaining
Josh Adams scored two tries for the visitors, with Heem, Jackson Willison and Biyi Alo getting one apiece. Four conversions from Ryan Mills completed the scoring.
Interim director of rugby Gary Gold said: "We knew we had to put in an incredibly strong performance and we showed huge character in an absolutely outstanding effort.
"We are a good team and improving but we want to keep our feet on the ground, although I believe we've turned the corner.
"Losing a game is still not satisfactory and I don't want us to have the mindset that losing bonus points are sufficient.
"We defended very well but we conceded two tries to Wade, who is a world class finisher. If you don't get him first time, you end up chasing shadows."
Gold refused to criticise the sending off of Heem or some of the marginal decisions that went against the Warriors.
He said: "Bryce was unfortunate but the referee had no choice. Luke is a good ref, he let the game flow and it was fun to watch.
"If our try had been allowed in the first half, anything may have happened but it didn't look good. I'd like to review it but I don't want to make excuses as we had a couple of really good chances but failed to take them as our execution was poor."
Source: PA
