Newcastle centre Rob Vickerman insists his Falcons side are looking up the table rather than down, as they prepare to host Bath at Kingston Park in Sunday's Guinness Premiership clash (kick-off 3pm).

The 24-year-old makes his 19th appearance of the season since joining from northern neighbours Leeds Carnegie, and despite his side having slipped to ninth in the table the Yorkshireman believes there is still plenty left to play for.

“I wouldn’t say we’re in a relegation scrap, there are over 40 points still on offer and a lot of rugby to be played between now and the end of the season,” said the former England Sevens man.

“It’s part of the reason why we play the sport, because every week is a new challenge, and all the teams in the league are doing their utmost to win every single game they play.

“Fair play to Leeds, they’ve been bottom of the table for a while but they’ve got a good pack down there and seem to be playing to their strengths now with a couple of recent wins. There’s no despondency at all in our camp though, morale is really good and there’s a great enthusiasm among the boys to work hard and improve.

“A win this Sunday against Bath is absolutely essential, that’s the only thought in our minds at the moment and we’re all collectively pushing hard to achieve that goal.”

Having shown plenty of attacking adventure despite suffering a 13-0 defeat in their last outing at Worcester, Vickerman said: “We need to try and capitalise on the ball that we’re getting, to play in the right areas and use our possession wisely.

“We’re good enough to cause some real damage to teams, we’ve shown it at times and we just need to back ourselves that little bit more when we’re on the attack. It’s a case of running that little bit harder, asking more questions of the defence and generally just having more of a go.

“It’s a big frustration that the backs haven’t fired collectively in recent weeks, it’s something we’ve talked about within the group and there’s a massive determination to rectify that in the coming weeks. We need to take some of the work load off the forwards, and we want to apply the skill that we know we’ve got. We’re a cohesive unit, and it’s just a case of working hard to tie it all in together.”

With tries hard to come by in recent weeks, he added: “I’m not really bothered how many tries we score, as long as we win the game.

“The biggest concern for us is that we haven’t been winning those games with enough regularity, but we’ve got through a lot of work this week and the boys are all looking to push on and improve on our recent performances.”

Up against a Bath side firing on all cylinders, Vickerman said of Sunday’s opponents: “The form teams have changed around a little bit from the start of the season with sides like Bath and Gloucester now more to the fore, but that was always going to happen because there are a lot of good squads out there in the Guinness Premiership.

“Bath didn’t start the season so well and their fans may have been disappointed by that, but they’ve really picked up in recent weeks and are right up there with the best form teams in the division.”

Knowing that his side can look back on a memorable bonus point away win at The Rec for inspiration though, he said: “The way we played against Bath back in October was some of the best rugby we’ve produced all season, and if we combine that with the attacking intent we showed for much of the game down at Worcester then we should be in for an exciting game.

“We’ve got to cut down the unforced errors and make sure we play to our strengths, we need to transfer our form in training on to the Guinness Premiership stage and to integrate the forwards and backs more effectively.

“Kingston Park is our home patch, and we have to make it into a place where opposition teams don’t like to come.

“If we play to how we know we can play, and if we can get the crowd fired up then there’s no excuse why we can’t win on Sunday.”

Tickets for Sunday’s game are still available by calling 0871 226 60 60, or from Kingston Park in person on the day.