Worcestershire Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes gives his reaction to BBC Hereford-Worcester's Dave Bradley after the three wicket defeat by Durham which mean the County were relegated to Division Two in the LV = County Championship.
Question: That (the defeat) is disappointing)?
Steve Rhodes: "No-one likes losing and we've had a few losses this year. But we've made the play (running) for most of this game, a rain shortened game.
"We lost a day through the weather and we've played the dominant cricket. I take my hat off to Durham today and it was a wonderful chase from them.
"But we made all the play this morning as well to set up this game of cricket and we tried hard. We didn't quite bowl as well as we could today and that meant the difference but there was some good play from Durham as well.
"We were robbed a bit by the light there at the end as well because with seven down it would have been great to put Shannon Gabriel back on and get him to wrap it all up and that wasn't to be.
"But a good game of cricket and I'm very hopeful that all of our team, they are very young, will have learnt a lot from this situation.
"This is like going back a few years to three day cricket and how you set up a game and set up a chase and for the people who turned up it was a very good game of cricket and I'm not too disheartened.
"We made a lot of the running against a side who have been in Division One for a period of time now. We will learn a lot from that sort of defeat even though we were arguably the better team for a long period of the match."
Question: It means you are relegated, you are a proud man, that must be disappointing?
Steve Rhodes: "I didn't want that to happen but even now that's history now. The learning cycle for all our group of players and support team, as long as we carry on learning and carry on improving…….
"What has been hard this year is this young group of players lack a lot of experience. There are no international players playing for us apart from our overseas players.
"If you look at that Collingwood-Borthwick partnership today, it was absolutely crucial in the game of cricket.
"We are coming up against sides with some international experience and that will come to us. That's on its way already. We've got a couple in the Lions squad now and they will start to get a little bit more exposure to better cricket and they will be better for it for Worcestershire."
Question: You were going well until the 50 over competition?
Steve Rhodes: "It is a hectic time. You play your four-day cricket at the same time and we have trips where we might play a match, then a four-day game, and a match straight afterwards and two together in 50 overs is really hard.
"Some of the other teams have got a little bit more depth in terms of lads who can play first team cricket and that helps through those periods.
"Sometimes the amount of effort we put in up to that point as well, it was just physically and mentally really demanding to try and get through.
"But that in itself is experience, learning that it's a marathon and not a sprint and you need to get up the next day knowing you've only got two months left of the season and get stuck in and do the job and those are the sort of things that experienced players manage to do."
