Stand-in skipper Alex Gidman scored a splendid 71 on his return to Worcestershire first team action against Nottinghamshire and is hoping he can make further positive contributions in the battle to stay in Division One of the LV = County Championship.
Gidman top-scored in his first senior innings since suffering concussion after being hit by a Ben Hilfenhaus delivery during the corresponding game between the two teams at Trent Bridge in late June.
It was his second half century of the campaign and Gidman looked set for a century until he was given out caught behind off spinner Imran Tahir.
The former Gloucestershire player believes he has benefitted from a spell of second team cricket after returning to fitness.
Gidman said: "I needed the cricket (in the second team) having been hit on the head and not having hit a ball for a couple of weeks.
"No-one earns the right to walk back into any team and it is a competitive unit here and it did me the world of good in one sense.
"I had plenty of time in the middle against Derbyshire (Seconds) a couple of weeks ago, got some scores under my belt, and started to feel I was hitting the ball a bit better.
"Everyone can benefit at times from a bit of time away from the spotlight and go and put some hard work in behind the scenes which is exactly what we did.
"It's been really hard work for me this year through form so it is nice to have contributed again but naturally as you'd expect, disappointed not to have gone on and got more particularly as that partnership was starting to get going, between myself and Coxy.
"Having been away for a few weeks, it's nice to have come back and contributed and got us up to something competitive on the board.
"It was disappointing not to have got to tea. If myself and Coxy could have got to tea, we could have been in a much different position."
It was this time last season that Gidman scored a superb 145 against Worcestershire before moving to New Road in a prolific end to 2014.
But he is more concerned about any personal contributions being beneficial to Worcestershire staying in the top flight.
He said: "I've never been a personal stats man and if we can get a good result out of this game, and I'm picked again, it would be great to contribute to the team's goal of staying up in this division.
"That is what we are here to try and do and if I am picked again, it would be great to try and stay in some form and put in some performances to help put us in positions to try and win a couple of games because that's what we need to try and do."
Gidman said it is too soon to assess the position of the game.
He said: "How do you feel about the game? I think as daft as it sounds it is still a little bit early to say. The end of tomorrow would give us a better idea of where we are at.
"Regardless of the scores, we are a little bit disappointed and a little bit frustrated probably individually in different ways.
"The character in this team is fantastic so I'm sure we will do our best to bounce back tomorrow.
"We could do with Mother Cricket helping us out a bit in the morning. It's the sort of wicket where it is quite hard to get in.
"Hopefully it stays that way and if we can get one out, hopefully we can get two or three wickets quickly and try and apply a bit of pressure back onto Nottinghamshire."
Keeper Ben Cox left the field in the closing overs of the day after earlier being struck on the grill of his helmet when batting by a delivery from Brett Hutton.
Joe Clarke took over behind the stumps for the final few overs but Cox is expected to be fine to resume tomorrow.
Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes said: "Ben had a knock when he was batting on his grill from a Brett Hutton delivery but he is fine.
"He just felt a little light headed so we wanted to check him, normal protocol, the physio (Ben Davies) wanted to have a look at him off the field, test him out.
"He has come through fine, not a problem, just a little bit of lightheadedness so he should be there tomorrow."
Skipper Gidman said: "Ben said the over before he went off that he was feeling a little bit light headed so, having been through it a few weeks ago, the best thing to do was get the physio on.
"With not many overs left in the day, we thought the best thing to do, with a natural keeper in Clarkey to come in, was to get Ben off and I'm sure he will be fine tomorrow."
