SOMETIMES in sport you just have to hold your hands up and say you were outplayed.

That was the case against Northamptonshire in our County Championship opener, but we’ve drawn a line under it and are in good shape ahead of today’s clash with Worcestershire.

Maybe it was first day nerves, but we didn’t perform well enough when put in to bat seven days ago and that left us needing the weather to help us avoid defeat.

It wasn’t the start that we wanted after a really good pre-season but it wasn’t all doom and gloom and there were also plenty of pleasing aspects, particularly with the ball.

We passed the bat 51 times (the figure when we batted was 17) and on another day we could’ve bowled them out for 220.

That means that from a bowling point of view we just need to keep it up.

Our new Australian signing Michael Hogan made a really impressive debut and could be an inspiration, leading our attack like Michael Kasprowicz did between 2002 and 2004.

Hoges is old school, he just loves to bowl and would do all day if he could. He will be a really important figure for us, especially after the loss of James Harris to Middlesex.

He has come here with bags of experience – and isn’t the only one.

Murray Goodwin has come from Sussex where he has been part of a successful side that has a winning mentality. Not only will he score big runs but he will help in the development of our young batsmen, and already has.

Marcus North is with us from the off this year, unlike 2012 when he joined us late, while we also have figures like Mark Wallace, Jim Allenby and Graham Wagg.

That mix of youth and experience is key and hopefully it can help us get off to a better start than last season, when we were behind the eight ball from the start.

We might have been a bit lucky to avoid defeat last week but we start today on six points and hope to add to that in a big way against Worcestershire.

They are an inexperienced side but are used to hard cricket having come down from Division One. It’s a challenge we are looking forward to.