Gibson has not given up on Yorkshire CCC promotion aim

Yorkshire embark on the ‘back seven’, so to speak, against Gloucestershire at North Marine Road from Sunday, sitting second-bottom of Division Two, 24 points (exactly one maximum points victory) behind Middlesex in the second and final promotion place.

Asked whether he is still chasing promotion, which was viewed as the minimum requirement going into a campaign in which Yorkshire publicly set their sights higher by targeting the title, Gibson said: “Absolutely. There’s still seven games to play. We’ve been close in quite a few games, and hopefully we can go those extra steps next time.”

Yorkshire, who are just 32 points behind leaders Sussex, despite the distance between the two in the table, drew their first match of the season against Leicestershire at Headingley, which was affected by the weather.

There followed another draw at Gloucestershire, where Yorkshire were thwarted by a slow pitch, a Kookaburra ball and, in the opinion of this observer, an overly cautious declaration when they set their hosts 498 to win from a minimum of 122 overs - a target that has only twice been exceeded in the tournament’s 134-year history.

A six-wicket defeat followed against Middlesex at Lord’s, one of those close encounters that can go either way, then another rain-affected draw against Derbyshire at Headingley, which was followed by another draw against Glamorgan at Headingley, when Yorkshire made all the running but lacked the necessary bowling penetration.

They collapsed badly with the winning line in sight against Sussex at Hove, losing by 21 runs, albeit in the face of some fine bowling by England’s Ollie Robinson, and in their most recent outing, against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road, they fell two wickets short of victory.

“There’s only really Middlesex where we weren’t at the races and of course we lost that game,” said Gibson.

“Every other game we were in a position where we could have won the game and I’m hoping that we’ve learnt a lot from those situations.

“We just need to keep putting ourselves in those winning situations and hopefully within the next seven games we can capitalise.

“We’re somewhere near the bottom of the log, but two wins would put us somewhere near the top of the log and we just need to find a way to win those games.”

Yorkshire have not been helped by injuries to their bowlers.

Ben Coad has been struggling with his back, Matty Fisher with his ankle, Dom Leech with his side and Ben Cliff with his ankle.

Matt Milnes and Mickey Edwards are out for the season with stress fractures of the back and foot respectively, and Yorkshire have had to boost numbers by signing Vishwa Fernando and Conor McKerr.

For a side that has struggled to bowl teams out and to find that all-important clinical edge in games, it has self-evidently been far from ideal.

At the same time, this is Division Two and Yorkshire have plenty of talented players in their squad.

The results in red-ball since all the off-field troubles began speak for themselves (four wins in 34 Championship matches) and undoubtedly have something to do with it as well.

Scarborough’s North Marine Road venue has a habit of lifting spirits, however, and Yorkshire won their most recent Championship game there, thrashing Derbyshire by 277 runs last September.

But now is the time for words to translate into actions as the club begins again in its bid for promotion.

“The last time we played Championship cricket we spoke about making sure that we’re clear on the distinction between playing good cricket and doing good things,” added Gibson.

“We’ve done a lot of really good things in the County Championship - we’ve made runs, we’ve made hundreds, we’ve bowled teams out like at Sussex, a game we should have won

“But in the Championship now we’ve got to make sure that we improve on the good things we’ve been doing and try to turn those things into positive results. We just need one win to really get us moving.”

It is a quick turnaround for the players.

Due to the whims of the schedule, Yorkshire go into the match less than 48 hours after they were in Vitality Blast action against Durham at Chester-le-Street, a game that itself began less than 24 hours after one of the most adrenaline-fuelled fixtures of the season – the Headingley Roses T20.

“You play Friday night in Durham and then on Sunday you’ve got to try and run in for however long in a four-day game,” said Gibson.

“It says a lot, but I’m not going to complain anymore about the schedule.

"The schedule is what it is, and we just have to make the most of it.”