IT WAS disappointing to lose our LV= County Championship Division One home match against Durham and we now need to put in a strong performance at Hampshire this week.

Hampshire are bottom of the table without a win and we are learning quickly that we must take our chances in the top flight.

I didn’t sleep very well after the third day of our match against Durham — it was a desperately disappointing feeling knowing we had let them off the hook, particularly after reducing Durham to 103-9. We need to get back on our feet and play well.

With one wicket needed to wrap up Durham’s first innings, they were there for the taking but the opportunity slipped through our grasp and we eventually crashed to a six-wicket defeat.

Tom Fell batted well for us on the opening day with 78 and Ben Cox hit 67 as we were happy to start with 323 all out after being on 185-6.

Joe Leach and Jack Shantry performed again with the ball and we were in a strong position to end Durham’s first innings when Graham Onions joined Scott Borthwick for the last wicket.

Had we got the final wicket, Durham would have followed on but a turning point was when they negotiated the follow-on to scrape to 198.

We put down a chance when Onions was on 25 and that was probably a pivotal moment in the match as Borthwick produced a magnificent knock to get to his century.

We were still in a strong position but Durham exploited gloomy, favourable bowling conditions and we slipped to 65-6 in our second innings.

Had Durham followed on, they would have batted in those conditions but I had no complaints about the light.

We went on and off for bad light and then suddenly we lost three or four wickets. Durham bowled good deliveries but we have to take responsibility for poor shots.

Leaving the ball outside of the off-stump would have helped us.

For the third day, the conditions were overcast. Joe decided counter-attacking with the bat was the best tactic and he made a really good 76 from 53 balls to lift us to 192 in our second innings.

We set Durham 318 to win, which is normally a good target to defend in a fourth innings at New Road.

We reduced Durham to 66-2 but the sun came out, the wicket dried up and the conditions played a huge part.

Paul Collingwood showed his experience to make a century and we knew we were in trouble on the fourth day. We dismissed Collingwood for 127 but the game had gone.

Durham made two centuries in the match and we didn’t make any, which proved vital in the outcome.