The skipper has blamed a mixture of poor batting and bad fielding as reasons for their dire start and is desperate to address them as quickly as possible.

Things haven’t run smoothly at St George’s Road this term with the devastating fire to their historic pavilion still fresh in the club’s memory.

However Stiff is eager to forget their nightmare start and swiftly move on.

He’s now fixing his gaze on visiting Castleford tomorrow (12 noon start) and firmly believes his side can collect their first complete win of the season.

“We played Castleford on the first game of the season and I don’t think they’ve got any stand out players,” he said.

“They’re not the best team in the league and we’ll be looking to get something out of the game.

“Of course it’s been an extremely frustrating start to the season. It’s been the same old same old each week from the first game of the season to last week.

“The bowling has been very good but it’s the batting and the fielding which needs to improve.

“We need to learn to set scores of over 200 regularly. We’ve not got one score of over 250 this season and especially on our pitch we need to start doing that.

“We’re trying to get across to the guys now not to be negative and that there’s nothing to lose now. I want them to go out there and be positive with the bat.

“If they get out playing shots then so be it, it’s when they bat 30 overs for 30 it’s putting pressure on the other players and that’s something we need to stop.”

On Saturday ‘Gate survived the rain but still ended up on the losing side in their trip to Doncaster.

Batting first Imran Patel (49) top scored in their 148-8, Andrew Parkin-Coates (73) then saw the home side through to victory on 149-7.

ECB Yorkshire LeaguePPts

York 13 69

Scarborough 13 63

Barnsley 13 60

Hull & YPI 13 56

Castleford 13 53

Doncaster Town 13 51

Rotherham Town 13 51

Sheffield Collegiate 13 50

Cleethorpes 13 50

Sheffield United 13 40

Yorkshire Academy 13 39

Driffield Town 13 32

Appleby Frodingham 13 30

Harrogate 13 11