Director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon is confident Yorkshire’s season will improve after Sunday’s Clydesdale Bank 40 horror show against the Netherlands.

Their Dutch calamity was the worst possible preparation for today’s crucial LV= County Championship relegation battle with bottom side Hampshire at the Rose Bowl.

But former England opening batsman Moxon has plenty of faith in his players ahead of their final five four-day matches.

“We will bounce back,” he said. “We’ve got fresh faces coming into the squad, so that will help.

“What this team has got is fight and character. We didn’t show much of it with the bat against Holland, but it is there.

“We’ve seen it before in four-day cricket when our backs have been against the wall.

“I expect the lads to come out fighting this morning.”

Jacques Rudolph, Ryan Sidebottom, Anthony McGrath and wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy all linked up with the squad in Southampton on Sunday, and trained at the Rose Bowl yesterday.

Moxon commented: “We’ve got some experience coming into the team, and I’m sure that will stand us in good stead.”

Moxon put a particular emphasis on the need to improve their batting this week, with his assistant coach Craig White adding: “We need to get the batters to put more of a value on their wickets.”

Yorkshire know a victory against winless Hampshire – it would be their first at the Rose Bowl since 2002 – will greatly strengthen their position in the relegation battle.

Despite having two games in hand on their visitors, Hampshire are 53 points from safety having lost five and drawn four of their nine outings.

And, with Worcestershire having been surprisingly beaten when they were bowled out for 95 on the final day of their clash with Somerset last week, it has opened the door for Yorkshire to take the gap between themselves and the relegation zone to 35 points.

York-based Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root will miss the clash as they are expected to play for the England Lions in a four-day match against Sri Lanka ‘A’ at Scarborough’s North Marine Road, also starting today.

Moxon has spoken all season about Yorkshire not playing to their full potential. But, to be fair to them, they have not been all that far away in the Championship.

They have twice taken Lancashire down to the wire; were denied a win by tail-end heroics from Hampshire’s Kabir Ali and Danny Briggs at Headingley; and would have beaten Nottinghamshire at Headingley 99 times out of 100.

It has just been in 40-over cricket where they have been way off the mark, highlighted in dramatic fashion at the VRA ground on Sunday.

Moxon added: “I use the three words ‘focus, attitude and mentality’. When we’ve got them, we’re a very good team. When it’s slightly off, we’re not a very good team.

“It’s just that carelessness that’s let us down.”