Gough's men face Durham at Chester-le-Street this evening after the former England fast bowler's hopes of ending his illustrious career with a major Lord's final were comprehensively shattered in Chelmsford on Saturday.

Yorkshire Carnegie went down by 87 runs as the club fell at the semi-final hurdle for the third time in five seasons, a defeat Gough attributed to a sluggish batting display.

Now he is calling on his players to bounce back by booking their place in the Twenty20 finals day at the Rose Bowl on July 26.

"It was hugely disappointing to lose against Essex but now we've got to lift ourselves for this quarter-final in Durham," said Gough. "I'll be able to lift myself, there's no doubt about that, and everyone needs to dust themselves down.

"There's a couple of the youngsters who do get a bit down and they'll probably need a bit of lifting, but if people can't get up for a big quarter-final and the chance to go to a finals day then there's nothing I can do.

"The bottom line is that we've got a chance to turn things around and we need to go out there and get the right result. It won't be easy, just as Essex wasn't easy. Durham are a difficult side to play against and it's a tough place to go.

"It's a game between two teams who've lost in the Friends Provident semi-finals so both will be desperate for success in the Twenty20. We'll have to play really well to beat them, but we've done well in this tournament and I've no doubt we can get the right result if we perform to our potential."

Gough blamed the Chelmsford setback on his team's slow scoring-rate as they chased a target of 286. Yorkshire were 140-1 in the 30th over with Andrew Gale and Anthony McGrath at the crease, but Gale's departure to a run-out triggered an almighty collapse which saw Yorkshire lose their last nine wickets for 58 runs in 13 overs.

Gough felt Yorkshire should have scored more quickly in the run-up to the 30-over mark – especially with Essex having a number of overs from leg-spinner Danish Kaneria left up their sleeve.

"The disappointing thing for me was that we left ourselves with too much to do," said Gough. "I can understand what the batsmen were thinking, but there's no way you can knock Danish around at eight-and-a-half an over because, realistically, you're going to be needing 10 or 11 runs an over at the other end.

"We weren't going after the bowling enough and I thought we left ourselves with too much work in the last 15 overs.

"Against a world-class leg-spinner you can't afford to do that and it put a lot of pressure on the players coming in.

"I thought the target was gettable so long as we were assertive at the start of our innings and, in fairness, we did get off to a good start.

"But then we lost our way and I was disappointed with the way we approached it; if we're going to win trophies, we need to do better. We were in the game at 140-1 but Danish still had to bowl seven or eight overs and that was the key. It's never easy for players coming in when they've got to go after a bowler of that sort of quality."

Kaneria took 3-32 and Ryan ten Doeschate 3-30 as Essex made facile work of the middle-order.

But Gough pronounced himself largely satisfied with his team's bowling display after Essex won the toss on a good batting pitch, their total boosted towards the end of their innings by a violent 61 from Graham Napier, who sent spectators scurrying for cover with six towering sixes.

"I thought we bowled well apart from a little spell towards the end and it was just a case of one guy, Napier, taking it away from us," added Gough. "Napier hit the ball well and made the most of the short boundaries. He hit the ball cleanly and it was an important innings."

Gough praised Rana Naved-ul-Hasan's contribution, the Pakistan fast bowler returning a respectable 2-41 from 10 overs on his return to the first team after six weeks out with a hamstring injury.

"Rana did well," said Gough. "He bowled cleverly and within himself and used a lot of nous. It's just a pity we didn't play to our potential with the bat. That's what cost us in the final analysis."