ALTHOUGH our defeat at Derbyshire was disappointing, I wouldn’t want to swap positions with any other team going into our last two matches.

It’s all in our hands and that’s all we can ask for at this stage of the season. We are happy to be the ones out in front and in pole position.

We wanted to be in with a shout of promotion at the start of the season and to be at the top with two games left is really good going.

However, we were disappointed in the manner of the defeat at Derby, especially getting bowled out in under 50 overs in our second innings having only been 10 overs from saving the game.

We lost five wickets in the first 25 overs on the final day which heaped the pressure on the middle and lower order.

The conditions were difficult and it was a used pitch even before the start of the game but we should have been able to see it out.

We had the worst of the conditions.

It was a good toss to win and Derbyshire were able to bat in the sunshine on the first morning but we had to bat in gloomy, overcast conditions with the floodlights on for most of the day.

Despite the favourable batting conditions for Derbyshire, I thought Jack Shantry and Charlie Morris were outstanding with the ball and Charlie picked up his first five-for for us, which was a positive from the match.

I also thought we showed great fight down the order in our first innings, with Joe Leach and Shaaiq Choudhry forming a fine partnership, and we got a slender lead which was a really good effort.

We didn’t bowl as well as we could have done in their second innings and could have bowled a bit better at their opening partnership, which set them up going into the final day.

It wasn’t the result we wanted but we have to move on and take the positives going into the match against Surrey at New Road, starting on Tuesday.

Hopefully, we can turn up, put on a good performance, get the result we really want and I am looking forward to it.

We should also have Moeen Ali back, which will be a huge boost. He is a major player for us and had a fine summer with England. It will be fantastic to have him back in the team.

There are also a few old faces in the Surrey side with former Worcestershire players Gareth Batty, Steven Davies, Vikram Solanki and Aneesh Kapil in their squad.

Aneesh made 104 not out in their draw with New Zealand ‘A’ earlier this week and should be one of the quartet returning to New Road.