Head coach Sadler says Northants ready for Yorkshire test

John Sadler admits Northamptonshire's two agonising Championship defeats at the hands of Yorkshire last season 'still hurt' - but insists his squad is ready to go toe-to-toe with one of the giants of the English game again this week.

The match at Headingley 12 months ago ended in a heartbreaking one-run loss for Northants, while the return at the County Ground in July saw the White Rose get the better of their Tudor counterparts by just 53 runs.

The two teams meet again this week, with their Division One clash starting at Wantage Road on Thursday (11am), and Sadler is confident Northants can come away with some reward.

"There are no easy games in division one cricket, so we have prepared well, and we have prepared well for Yorkshire," said the Northants head coach, who is from Dewsbury and began his playing career at Headingley.

"We are ready for a good challenge against them. They are coming off the back of a good win down at Gloucester last week, so there could be some tired minds and legs in there. But it is first division cricket and every game is going to be a challenge."

Looking back on last summer, Sadler admitted: "We could have quite easily won both of the games against them so to come away with two losses did hurt.

"But that has been and gone now, this is a new season, we start again this week, and looking forward to putting in a good performance against them.

"Hopefully over the four days we can put ourselves in the position to try to force a win."

Northants will hand debuts to their two overseas signings, batsman Will Young and seam bowler Matt Kelly, with Ben Curran and Nathan Buck dropping out of the squad named for the opening match of the season against Gloucestershire.

Northants squad v Yorkshire: Ricardo Vasconcelos (c); Gareth Berg; Josh Cobb; Emilio Gay; Matt Kelly; Rob Keogh; Simon Kerrigan; Lewis McManus (wk); Luke Procter; Ben Sanderson; Tom Taylor; Will Young’; Saif Zaib