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John Crawley did not mince his words after a disastrous Lancashire collapse at Old Trafford yesterday.

Needing 311 to beat Northants, they crumbled to 121 all out and a second successive defeat, which leaves them struggling in the bottom five of the championship, already 14 points behind the top nine.

And skipper Crawley said: ``That was dreadful, probably the worst we've played since I've been here. In many ways we were the only winner chasing that sort of total, but instead we got bowled out in 48 overs which was terrible.''

Mark Chilton and Nathan Wood put on 39 for the first wicket but then Devon Malcolm fired out Chilton and John Crawley in the space of four balls. Crawley's failure left him with only 45 runs from five championship innings but it was his second unlucky dismissal of the match, as after being caught off the gloves in the first innings, he flicked a harmless ball straight to midwicket. As Crawley said: ``All the way through last season those balls went for four, but this year everything I've tried to do hasn't gone right. You have to be philosophical and hopefully I'm due a more positive spell soon.'' Paddy McKeown and Graham Lloyd also went cheaply, and despite some resistance from Mike Watkinson and Glen Chapple, Malcolm returned to uproot Chapple's middle stump and complete figures of 4-37.

At least Lancashire have the chance to bounce straight back with another home game against Nottinghamshire starting tomorrow - a game which sees the return of Jason Gallian to Old Trafford as the new Notts captain. ``We've got four days against Notts then a one day game against Worcester and we must win both,'' admitted Crawley.