Yorkshire v Essex: We'll keep our feet on ground promises Gale

First, Steve Patterson's maiden five-wicket haul reduced Essex from their overnight 159-5 to 206 in reply to Yorkshire's first innings 516.

Then, after Andrew Gale enforced the follow-on, all the frontline bowlers took wickets as the visitors were dismissed for 214 to hand Yorkshire victory by an innings and 96 runs.

It was Yorkshire's third win in five Championship games – one more than they managed during the whole of last season – and confirmed their status as genuine title challengers.

Barring Armageddon, a team tipped by most bookmakers to finish bottom of Division One are going to do no such thing after four successive years spent languishing in the basement.

Gale's insistence his team go into every game as underdogs has also been blown out of the water by this result.

No one is going to fancy playing Yorkshire in this form – with or without Bresnan and Shahzad.

Afterwards, Gale paid tribute to his side but played down expectations of a title challenge.

"The lads did brilliantly and are growing in confidence with every win, but we can't start getting carried away," he said.

"We're playing good cricket at the moment but things can change fast.

"It only takes one loss, and I've told the players we've got to keep our feet on the ground.

"We haven't yet played the likes of Lancashire and Notts and bigger tests lie ahead."

Gale admitted he had been slightly taken aback by Yorkshire's stunning start.

Victory at North Marine Road followed fine wins over Warwickshire at Edgbaston and Somerset at Headingley Carnegie.

"I won't lie, at the start of the season I was a little bit concerned about how the young lads would step up and how they'd deal with the pressure, but they've done magnificently well," he added.

"There are no nerves about – the lads are asking me for the ball all the time or they're asking to go higher up the batting order – and they're all contributing.

"Winning our first match kicked us on and gave us the momentum and belief we could do well, and long may it continue. But we're only five games into the season and we can't get complacent."

Yorkshire's leading performer yesterday was Patterson, who took four of the last five first innings wickets to fall on a sunny morning.

The 26-year-old seamer had James Foster lbw to the last ball of the day's first over as the wicketkeeper shouldered arms, Essex losing their seventh wicket in the fourth over when Tino Best had Ryan ten Doeschate lbw.

Best tried to bounce out David Masters on a day when he occasionally lost his discipline – he conceded four overthrows in the second innings when he inexplicably hurled the ball towards the stumps after Mark Pettini patted harmlessly back down the pitch.

But Patterson showed the necessary composure as he removed Masters with the aid of a brilliant diving catch at cover by Joe Sayers before bowling Chris Wright and having Tim Phillips caught at cover.

In one of the most surprising statistics of this or any other season, Gale became the first Yorkshire captain since Vic Wilson exactly half-a-century earlier to enforce the follow-on in successive Championship games as Essex – trailing by 310 – were left with a mountain to climb.

The visitors started their second innings 50 minutes before lunch and lost two wickets before the interval as Oliver Hannon-Dalby had Billy Godleman caught at third slip and Alastair Cook caught behind.

After the break, Patterson had John Maunders caught behind before Richard Pyrah chipped in with the wickets of Jaik Mickleburgh lbw and Foster caught behind to leave Essex reeling on 105-5.

Best eventually got Pettini lbw with a ball that beat him for sheer pace, Patterson striking again when he had ten Doeschate caught at short mid-wicket.

Adil Rashid rounded off proceedings by having Masters and Wright stumped before bowling the hapless Chris Martin with 14 overs of the day remaining.

On a decent batting pitch, no Essex batsman passed fifty in the match as Yorkshire were involved in their first three-day finish since August 2008.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Andrew Gale

Yorkshire's captain top-scored with 135 and then led his team superbly in the field as Essex were crushed at the seaside.