ANDREW Gale insists he is up for the challenge of turning Yorkshire's fortunes around after their near miss with County Championship relegation.

Yorkshire's batting has come under fire for the majority of the season, with the coach not pulling any punches in his assessment of their performances.

Yet Gale has not escaped criticism from the club's fanbase either.

After this week's final-round horror show against new champions Essex at Chelmsford, in which they were bowled out for 111 and 74 and beaten by a record 376 runs, there were calls for him to resign following just one season in charge.

However, that will not be happening, vowed the former title-winning captain.

Gale said: "People can say what they want. I've always been up for a challenge. I love this club and still believe in the group of players.

"I won't be walking away from this club. I've heard lots of stuff about how Andrew Gale's the cheap option. Let me tell you, I'm not.

"I had ambitions to win trophies this year. It's not worked out like that but I'm hoping in the scheme of things this is a big lesson for myself and the players. It's a massive winter for us."

Gale has laid the majority of the blame at the door of senior players following a series of batting disasters.

Only captain Gary Ballance emerged from the season with any credit following a haul of 951 four-day runs. In terms of the bowling, Ben Coad was superb for his 50 wickets.

Gale said: "The batting is something we've talked about a hell of a lot over the last few years. We have spiralled and I guess individual performances have paved over the cracks at times.

"But I think a big turning point was losing Gary (Ballance) early in the season (to England) when he was performing at his best. When he left, we spiralled out of control.

"The lads have got to be honest with themselves. It's just not good enough, it's as simple as that. Ultimately I feel let down by the players, particularly the senior players.

"These are guys who have played international cricket with a tremendous track record behind them and have won County Championships themselves.

"They know what to do to perform at this level but they've been well below par. There's no words to get around that."

Gale and his players had a long debrief in the Chelmsford dressing room on Wednesday evening.

He said: "I just want honesty from the players, that's the main thing. I want to know 'why's this been happening?'.

"I feel like we've put all the best plans in place for them to succeed and we've performed well under par, particularly in the County Championship.

"The white ball, I feel we've taken a step in the right direction. Our batting has been outstanding at times this year, even though we didn't qualify in the Twenty20. But I saw a real improvement in our game plans and the way we went about things.

"But if we're brutally honest, we're lucky not to have been relegated this year. Another year, if we played like that, we'd be in Division Two. We've got to think ourselves lucky we're not and we can still compete at this level."

Early in the week, Gale indicated there would not be many personnel changes this winter – but that was before he saw his batsmen fail twice, with him describing the display as "embarrassing".

When asked whether what he had seen against Essex had changed his mind in terms of player comings and goings, the Yorkshire coach said: "I'm not sure yet.

"I'll have the weekend off and meet with Martyn (Moxon, director of cricket) and Mark (Arthur, chief executive) next week and we'll look at which direction we want to go with the club."