WORCESTERSHIRE head coach Alan Richardson felt there were moments where his side were "nowhere near" the attitude and spirit they have previously displayed, in their loss to Surrey.
The side fell to a nine wicket loss on the third day against a strong Surrey side at Visit Worcestershire New Road.
Aware of the formidable challenge that lay before his team going into the match, Richardson walked away disappointed with their application during it.
"I think we knew that it was going to be a real challenge," he admitted. "Surrey have been a very good side for a long period of time now, and you look down their line up, you know that it’s going to take a real good effort and a real good performance to be able to challenge them.
"But one that we thought that we could do, and I think we left ourselves quite a bit short in terms of how we went about our work in the first innings.
"Supporters will watch it, and people who’ve watched it will obviously point at the skill sets that probably weren’t quite there, but I think for me, it is just more in around the attitude and the spirit that I think has been a real hallmark of how we’ve played over a number of years now.
"I think there was certainly moments in that game where we were nowhere near that. If you do that against a side like Surrey, they’re going to come hard at you and make you pay."
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A strong performance by Ben Allison dragged his side back into the game, leaving them trailing by only 77 late on in day two.
However two major collapses, either side of Allison and Adam Hose's 66-run partnership, gave the hosts just a 48-run lead heading into the final innings.
"There was moments with our batting where we didn’t work together as a team," he added. "I think the collapses show that was probably as disappointing as I’ve seen in our red ball side since I’ve been in charge in terms of how we went about our stuff.
"It’s not necessarily the execution of the skills, for me, it’s more about how we went about it.
"We slept-walked our way through two hours of cricket, which I don’t think you can do against a very good side.
"I thought it was a really brave decision to go bat first, but I think a correct one. We found ways of getting out though, which didn’t help us."
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