Derbyshire's Dave Houghton rues missed promotion opportunity

It was a season in which Derbyshire finally came of age in Twenty20 cricket but also one they will look back on with a sense of regret

It was a season in which Derbyshire finally came of age in Twenty20 cricket but also one they will look back on with a sense of regret.

Qualifying for Finals Day for the first time in the club's history was a high point but the failure to sustain a promotion challenge in the Specsavers County Championship was a disappointment for head of cricket Dave Houghton.

Defeats at home to Glamorgan and away to Durham were, for Houghton, "missed opportunities," when there were three promotion places up for grabs.

"I think we left a couple out there," he admitted.

"I look at both games and I think what we are doing now in our recruiting for next year is to try and get ourselves a leading bowler who can win us those games from those positions.

"We were competitive throughout the season but I look back and I think we should have got promoted. We did well in the T20s, I would have liked us to have done slightly better in the 50 overs competition so there's a little bit still out there.

"I think we have made progress. Firstly, we had to get our team environment right and the players getting used to having a coaching staff around again and we have a lovely spirit in the changing room.

"We started the season with a core and we added little bits and pieces to give us better strength as a squad and from that point of view we are very happy where we are.

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"I think the pick-up of Leus du Plooy and Fynn Hudson-Prentice have been two magnificent signings for us, they really have enhanced our team and given us a very good chance next year.

"If we add the right ingredient in an overseas player I think we will go into next season as strong as any side. Certainly our top five will be as strong as anybody's and we will have a good bowling attack."

New Zealand fast bowler Logan van Beek struggled all season with a knee injury and Houghton believes he might have been the difference had he been fit.

"Logan was a fantastic overseas professional for us but he was sadly playing on one-and-a-half legs the whole season which he hid particularly well from everybody but we knew he was struggling,” he said.

"He had a knee injury he carried through the season and I think had he been fit, he would have been able to supply those finishing touches we needed. "

Derbyshire's appointment of Dominic Cork as specialist coach for the Vitality Blast was an inspired one and the club now have to decide if he will return in the role next year.

Houghton said: "Dom did a really good job. When I came in I was looking for some consistency and Dom had been with the T20 side for two years so I thought let's get him in.

"The T20 campaign went fantastically but I have to look at this in a business sense as well. We have four full-time coaches at the club so this has a financial attachment to it.

"It's not to take anything away from what Corky did this year, he did a fantastic job in leading that T20 campaign for us but it is a business and we have to do the right thing by the club and the finances as well."

Courtesy of the ECB Reporters Network