AT HAMPSHIRE, we’re still at the bottom of the league and we’ve got five games of the season left.

We need to win some matches between now and the end of the season – probably two or three – but we’ve got nothing to lose.

We’ve been at the bottom of the table all year, so all that we can do is move up from that position and there are still a couple of teams that can be dragged into those bottom two.

If it takes until the last hour of the last day, we’re prepared to take it that deep.

We played some very good cricket in our game against Lancashire last week and it’s frustrating that we didn’t get the win but we can take a lot of confidence from the way that we performed.

Our captain, Will Smith, was outstanding with his double hundred – we’ve talked about trying to set big scores in our first innings and we managed to do that.

We put ourselves in a position where we couldn’t lose the game and we had the chance to win but Lancashire batted really well after the follow-on and managed to get the draw.

Personally, I thought that I bowled really nicely and it was pleasing to get six wickets in the game.

When I got three quick wickets towards the end, I thought that might go on to win the game for us but fair play to Lancashire because they managed to survive on what wasn’t an easy wicket and they deserved their draw in the end.

We’ve still got games to come against Surrey and Nottinghamshire, who are only four points above us in the table – we play them on Saturday.

We were given Monday and Tuesday off this week and that was ideal just to make sure that we’re relaxed physically and mentally for what’s going to be a massive game.

I think it’s definitely better that we had some time off rather than going straight into the game, because bowling and fielding for 210 overs takes a big toll on the body.

It’s going to be a big game against Notts but this is an exciting time of the year and you’ve just got to be up for it.