Worcester Warriors: Gary Gold not fooled by his side's Anglo-Welsh try spree in Cardiff

Worcester boss Gary Gold was taking charge of the Warriors for the first time at Cardiff Arms Park

New Worcester Warriors boss Gary Gold has warned his team not get carried away after scoring eight tries in their Anglo-Welsh Cup win over Cardiff Blues.

Worcester's 53-38 win at Cardiff Arms Park was their first away victory in any competition in 11 months.

But Gold warns that this Saturday's home Premiership test against champions Saracens will be much tougher.

"If we don't sharpen up our defence, it could be a very long day for us," the Warriors director of rugby, 49, said.

"To go away and get 50 points anywhere has got to be good. But Saracens won't give you the opportunities to score 50 points against them."

Warriors will be returning to Premiership action for the first time in over a month, since their 55-19 defeat at Gloucester.

And they will be bottom by the time the game with Sarries kicks off, if 12th-placed Bristol pick up two points or more from Friday night's home fixture against seventh-placed Harlequins.

Weakened line-ups at Sixways

The return of Francois Hougaard (right) against Cardiff was good news for Worcester Warriors

Saracens may have all of their eight England Six Nations squad players missing at Sixways this weekend - hooker Jamie George, lock Maro Itoje, the Vunipola brothers, stand-off Owen Farrell, wing Chris Ashton, full-back Alex Goode and injured lock George Kruis.

But Worcester are without centre Ben Te'o, scorer of England's late match-winning try against France, and are still without skipper GJ Van Velze, full-back Chris Pennell and hooker Niall Annett, while winger Dean Hammond pulled his hamstring in Cardiff.

They did have the tonic of scrum-half Francois Hougaard scoring a try on his first start of the season after injury, but Gold remains realistic.

"It could be a long while before we get the type of performance which would be satisfactory," Gold told BBC Hereford & Worcester. "We've got a lot of work to do, but at least it's on the back of a win.

"It wasn't Cardiff's full-strength side but you've still got to go out and beat them. Every little bit of confidence will help. But it's not all going to follow into place immediately. Why should everything change after just five days?

"We have nine very big games to go and we need to keep improving. The guys have no doubt about their magnitude of the task, but we now need the Warriors fans to come out in their droves this weekend."