Matt Mason is confident Worcestershire Seconds will bounce back from Trophy disappointment when they take on Lancashire again today at the start of a three-day Championship match at Northern CC in Liverpool.
The Seconds, who will give a debut today to paceman Matthew Wareing, went down by one wicket at Neston yesterday and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the semi-finals of the 50 over competition.
But Assistant Coach-Bowling Coach Mason, who is taking charge of the Seconds for this game, expects a positive response.
He said: "The lads were absolutely gutted afterwards and it is a real shame they have not gone through to the semi-finals but they can take a lot of pride from their performance.
"There were some good knocks from George Rhodes, Ross Whitely, Alex Hepburn and Zen Malik although maybe in the end we did feel we might be about 30 runs short.
"We just lost too many wickets going into the last 15 overs to really push on with all guns blazing.
"But the boys then fought so hard to defend that total and the fielding performance was probably the best I've seen for sometime from our lads.
"In the end it could have gone either way but Lancashire just got over the line.
"Like I said, the lads were gutted but they were pretty happy to hear the first team result from Derby – and I'm sure they will bounce back in the Championship game against Lancashire."
Wareing, 23, is a left armer who has played for Unicorns, Suffolk and MCC Young Cricketers this summer.
He previously played for Essex Seconds and Leicestershire Seconds.
Seconds:
Rhodes (c)
Westbury
Kervezee
Hepburn
Whiteley
Dell
Milton (w)
Malik
Twohig
Brown
Wareing
12th man: Dudley