Surrey's professional cricket manager, Chris Adams has accused some of his batsmen of lacking application, even though he felt that the toss, which Surrey lost, was crucial to the outcome of last week's defeat at the hands of Gloucestershire at Bristol.

With just two more LV County Championship games to go, both of which are at home, Adams stressed the importance of not finishing the campaign on a low note.

He said: "There's a feeling that it's starting to hurt now. The boys need to focus on getting something out of the rest of this season.

"It already feels as though we've moved ahead to next season, on the development side and in terms of having a look at people, but it's imperative that we treat the last two championship games and the three Pro40s as must-win games.

"We've got no right to say they are must-win games, but they are very important games for us to judge who the characters are in the dressing room."

One of the positives to come from the first innings defeat that Gloucestershire have inflicted on Surrey since 1975 was the batting of debutant Arun Harinath, who made 44 in the second innings after not disgracing himself in the first dig, when the Brown Caps collapsed from 102-1 to 138-8.

Adams said: "Arun looked very composed. He looked like a batsman who likes batting. I don't say that lightly because we've got one or two batsmen at the moment who don't really seem to like batting that much and who don't want to spend too much time at the crease.

"There are enough players who have played enough cricket still in the side who need to step up and show what they are made of and show that they are not just bit-part players who rely on the big players to do all the run-scoring and all the wicket-taking.

"Dernbach, who is leading the attack at the moment, looks frustrated. All our bowlers are finding life tough at the moment, be it on the road or at home. Equally, the batters have lost their leader, their talisman in Mark Ramprakash and their captain, Mark Butcher, so let's see one of them step forward and take responsibility."

Adams was in agreement that Surrey had not enjoyed the best of the conditions. He said: "Perhaps we will reflect and say we had some difficult conditions to deal with. We lost the toss and I think the lads did amazing to put 70 on for the first wicket. It was a wicket that any half-decent attack would have done some serious damage on.

"Fortunately for the groundsman neither side had a particularly dangerous attack, so perhaps he got away with producing a result pitch. But fair play to Gloucester, that's the way they play their cricket and the groundsman seems to deliver what they want.

"We would definitely have bowled first had we won the toss. When you come across a wet, green, damp pitch like that, you bowl, don't you? But I just felt today there was a feeling that we weren't going to force a draw, whereas at Canterbury I had a feeling that we were going to do it.

"That's three back-to-back defeats. It starts to erode your belief. Doubt starts to creep in. That's the biggest concern. With two games to go, if we can't salvage results then let's salvage that belief.

"We've got to go out there still and play positively and enjoy our cricket. It's onwards, not necessarily upwards, but it's onwards and let's look for something good out of the season."