Robinson says there’s a lot of ‘pride hurt’ following Surrey defeat

Mark Robinson admits his side's pride was 'hurt' following their three-day defeat to Surrey.

But speaking after the contest at the Kia Oval, the First Team Coach stressed it’s important the squad assess their goals and give it everything until the end of the season.

Warwickshire’s hopes of lifting the County Championship trophy for a ninth time have almost been dashed, but Robinson believes it’s important the team keeps striving to improve.

“Oh, look, there’s a lot of hurt and a lot of pride hurt,” said Robinson. “We’ve been tested personnel-wise and preparation for some of the players was massively short, but we’re hurting because we’ve been hammered.

“Surrey is a good benchmark team for where we want to be. We gave them a good game earlier in the season be it losing, but we came in here vulnerable and our depth of squad got exposed and we’ve not been able to cope.

“That’s the ambition for the players and that’s where our message to the players is we’ve got to get excited about keeping on improving. This is a benchmark team for us. It’s where we want to be as a big Club Warwickshire.

“You’ve got to be in that position where we can go toe to toe with whatever team we put out because we can absorb injuries, absorb absentees, and be at the right end of the table consistently. We want to be winning it and that’s what we’re working towards. That’s the message.

“Chris Rushworth just spoke around finding individual motivation and your ambitions – be it to play for England, score a thousand runs, take 50 wickets, or whatever. Just find that individual motivation.

“Team-wise in the short term it would be to finish in the top three.”