IT has been a tough start for the players individually, for the team and for the supporters - you can tell that from some of the mumblings around the ground.

But I am determined we are going to fight our way out of this problem and once we get all our players back I know we will be a lot stronger.

Sides won't be getting scores of five to six hundred against us.

With the position we are in, undoubtedly we're in a dogfight now. We've got 11 games to go and we've got to win at least four of them.

It can definitely be turned around - we showed that last year.

The thing about cricket is that you can get on winning and losing rolls. I thought that we'd turned things around against Lancashire and against Derbyshire but the Sussex game was a major hurdle for us.

We have got to address things again and start working to get out of this slump - it's as simple as that.

We are all a bit fed up with this losing run we're on at the moment but we are very determined to put it right.

Our first innings against Sussex, being bowled out in just 27.2 overs, was very disappointing.

There were some strange ways of getting out and it was quite a strange session - that comes around when you are a little bit tentative and struggling for form.

In the second innings, Graeme Hick showed us the way and it was a fine knock - probably his best of the season.

The one at Lancashire against Muralitharan was good, but I think this one was better. He showed the way, but unfortunately didn't have enough support at the other end, apart from two good partnerships with Steven Davies and Gareth Batty.

Graeme has been working hard on a couple of technical issues over the last four or five years and he is now starting to feel as though they are coming together.

He is feeling more confident at the crease and his feet are moving far better. He's feeling good and was relieved to get to a hundred because it was such a fighting knock.

It was also good for Davies to get some time in the middle, but quite rightly he was disappointed, because if you get to 40 in that situation, you want to make a hundred - it was the same for Batty.

We've struggled with injuries this year and we've not got the strongest of bowling squads compared with some Division One sides, but that is part of it. You have to take it on the chin and go out there and get on with it.

I'm always chatting to other coaches and, who knows, a loan signing could be a possibility.

I said at the start of the season that compared to other counties we were a little bit weaker in depth and I said to the board that there is a loan system in place, but it all depends on whether you can get hold of the right players.

A lot of the coaches don't want to do it because the type of bowlers you want to pick up are the ones who aren't playing in the first team.

Coaches are reluctant to let them go because you are playing in the same division. They don't want their players to go and get points for teams they are competing against.