Sussex all out for 243 so that means they cannot overtake our points total whatever the outcome in either game from now on. They can only get 18 points if they win which takes them to 157 and we already have 159 points with our 3 bowling points.

Unless of course we now lose points for a dodgy track or slow over rate.

So let's press on and try to win this. Warwickshire may only get 3 points out of their present game, so a good win would lift us to fourth place.

Agreed - now we are safe we can afford to play positive cricket, entertain the fans and go for a win.

Sometimes you just have to be patient and let other things develop first before adopting a gung-ho approach

although it does give me some cause for concern when I am now required to cheer on Lancashire in order to boost our position in the table

I don't ever advocate a gung-ho approach. But if you don't look confident and play with confident tactics, then the opposition take heart and you don't get the best out of your talents.
Almost every other county but Yorkshire strutted into New Road this year and strutted out with the points. With Yorkshire, when the first couple of catches went down, the heads went down too and an air of resignation set in.

Well that's good news I guess. Although it has to be said that the manner of our "triumph" rather matches our entire season. Last year we gloriously secured our own safety thanks to a brilliant reargaurd action against all odds. This year we seem to have limped over the line because someone else had a poor innings...
I'd like to see the team use the current game to really play as well as we all know they're capable of. We have some exceptional players in our team - let's see them fulfill their potential.
We should aim to continue the momentum of the session after tea and crack on a bit in the morning. It might sound ridiculously "gung-ho" (to coin a phrase)to some people, but our best chance of victory in this game is to get to 600 before the close of play and try and bowl them out on the last day - or to declare half way through the afternoon and invite them to set some sort of a target.
Let's try and have a game which we can all be proud of - and set down a marker for the way we intend to play next year...

"Last year we gloriously secured our own safety thanks to a brilliant reargaurd action against all odds. This year we seem to have limped over the line because someone else had a poor innings..."

We didn't need the brilliant rear-guard action in the last game this year, because we brilliantly bowled a team out for 83 in the game before. Or would you have preferred us to have lost at Hove and to have collapsed today, just to give a bit of tension?

Last year we stayed up partly because Kent collapsed so this year is no difference. Personally I think we should wait & see what happens tomorrow before going gung ho for a win

No, I would have preferred us to play with more urgency, aggression and commitment at New Road, Trent Bridge and Headingley so we were challenging at the other end of the table...
We're a good team, but we've been badly motivated and badly led.

I agree we've been badly led ... but if we'd have the current umpires would have lost most of the last session at Trent Bridge on the Saturday because of the light .... the problems came earlier in the season when we had a lead on the first innings yet couldn't win the game ... Durham at Headingley is one match that comes to mind when we failedto get the wickets on the final morning ... again ... & how did we let Somerset get 470+ at Taunton?

i reckon i could a score hundred at taunton

If we had some decent cricket pitches at home, our spinners would give us 2, 3, 4, possibly more wins, and we would be challenging almost by default. Its only the ECB standard we want; which I think is something like pace, bounce and increasing amounts of turn/deterioration.

Regarding todays game then our best chance of a win has to be to get as many as we can as quickly as we can in the first innings and try an dnot need a second innings. It should be tailor made for Mags (without the burden of having to dig us out of a top order collapse) Gale (to justify his player of the year selection) and Brophy to have the licence to go for quick runs and it will be fascinating to see Bairstow and Lyth show their all round veratility to do likewise.

Our best chance of bowling Hampshire out has to be on the last day and not on the 3rd day - we have a spinner in form (with bat and ball) and 3 seamers who if rumours are correct could all be playing their last 4 day game for us - what better way to depart than by bowling us to victory?

Of course one of our other wins this season was against Hampshire so lets not be afraid and lets try and finish the season in positive and attacking style so we can go to the winter with fresh hope and optimism.