Captain Chris Cooke admitted his side had been outplayed in all departments following their innings and 74 run defeat to Essex in the LV= Insurance County Championship at Sophia Gardens.
The Welsh county went into the third day on 71/6 with Cooke and Andrew Salter hoping to continue their partnership from the previous evening, but after Salter was unluckily bowled off his thigh pad, new ball pairing Sam Cook and Jamie Porter quickly sealed victory for the away side.
"It was always going to be tough to get back into the game today, but we hoped that Salts and I could at least bat a couple of sessions," said Cooke.
"You never know, this game’s a funny game but obviously he got out to quite a lucky dismissal and then it just stumbled from there.
"Congratulations to Essex, they outplayed us in all three departments and with those fine margins against a good team, it can look like quite a hammering. So, we were slightly off this game but I think we’re still on the right track and we’ve still got three big games to go.
"It was definitely a new ball wicket and they got through our new ball and we didn’t get through theirs. They out fielded us, out caught us and probably out bowled and out batted us. That’s the nature of the game, we’ll stick to our game plans and the culture we’re trying to create and go from there.
"We’ll stick to what we’ve been doing because it’s been working and the guys are really confident with how we set up, so we’ve got a big game up in Durham now to turn things around."