HEAD coach Alex Gidman admitted Worcestershire were outplayed by Durham but is confident their fortunes will turn “if we keep trusting in what we are doing.”

Worcestershire came up against a high-quality attack at the Emirates Riverside and went down by 258 runs in the LV=Insurance County Championship encounter.

After five successive draws, it was Worcestershire’s first defeat of the summer, and they are still only six points off new Group One leaders Essex.

Next on the agenda is a third successive away match with third-placed Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge starting on Thursday.

It will be Worcestershire’s seventh game in seven weeks, whereas Durham went into this game fully refreshed after a week off, and it will be the same for Nottinghamshire after missing this round of fixtures.

Gidman said: “The lads are disappointed that they didn’t perform well enough in this game, but we’ll support them to the hilt.

“The guys are okay. We were likely to lose a game at some stage, and it feels worse because we haven’t won one yet.

“We have only really had two winnable games (at Derby and Durham), and we haven’t performed well enough in those games, but it doesn’t make us a bad team at all.

“The New Road wickets were tough to play on, and the weather hindered us against Warwickshire.

“Add that to the fact that five of our first seven games will have been away without a break, and we have got some really good points on the board.

“If the players trust what they are doing and back themselves, there is every chance this little period will turn.”

Gidman has no complaints about the result against Durham.

He said: “We were outplayed by a better team this week. They played a lot better than us in their home conditions, and we have to take it on the chin.

“I thought we fought extremely hard with the bat in the first innings but struggled to keep up with them as the game went on.

“Their bowling attack is the best we’ve seen this season, as close to an international challenge that county cricketers will come across in their own conditions.

“We didn’t make the most of the conditions after winning the toss. Joe (Leach) believed that was the right decision, and I support that decision completely.

However, we have to accept we didn’t bowl as well as we can in that first session.

“We could have occupied the crease a little bit longer at times, but they are masters of their craft up here, and we knew it would be a challenge.”