DIRECTOR of Cricket Tom Moody wants his Worcestershire players to learn from their recent mistakes when they take on Derbyshire in a County Championship Division Two match which opens at New Road tomorrow.

The County have lost their last five games, but Moody is convinced they will soon start to tip the balance in their favour.

He said: "The positives I can take out of it is that we have been in control of a lot of the situations we have faced, but we've just made mistakes which have cost us.

"We have to learn that if we are going to be consistently winning side we can't afford to make those mistakes, but at least we are seriously competitive."

After making an encouraging start to the season with two rain-hit Championship draws and three consecutive limited-over victories, the County have suffered three defeats in the Benson and Hedges Cup, one in the Championship and one in the Norwich Union League Division Two.

Worcestershire have yet to finalise their side but are optimistic that opener Paul Pollard will pass a fitness check tomorrow morning on his hamstring problem.

He picked up the nagging injury during his Gold Award winning batting display in the Benson and Hedges Cup win over Northamptonshire at Kidderminster on April 30. It has forced him to miss the last six matches.

Moody said the former Nottinghamshire left hander, however, would not be risked unless he had made a full recovery.

The forthcoming match signals the return of spinner Richard Illingworth who joined Derbyshire after being released by the County following 19 distinguished seasons at New Road.

The majority of the 37-year-old's appearances last term were in limited-over matches.

During his time at New Road he took more than 800 first-class wickets as well as some 340 one-day scalps.

He captured five wickets in an innings on 29 occasions, including twice in one-day games, and took ten wickets in a match six times.

Illingworth notched four first-class centuries for Worcestershire and shared in many vital rear-guard actions for the New Road club for whom he scored almost 7,000 runs.

Moody said: "We'll enjoy playing against Illy. He's been a tremendous competitor over the years and everyone will be aware that they will be in for a battle against him whether batting or bowling."

Worcestershire (from): Weston, Singh, Hick (capt.), Solanki, Leather-dale, Pollard, Rhodes, Bichel, Boulton, Lampitt, Rawnsley, Sheriyar.

Derbyshire: L D Sutton , T Lungley , M P Dowman , M J Di Venuto , R J Bailey , G Welch , K M Krikken, R K Illingworth , W G Khan , T A Munton (capt) , N R C Dumelow.