Opening batsman Joe Sayers has urged his Yorkshire team-mates to use the final two games of last season as the blueprint for their LV= County Championship future.

Despite the White Rose county suffering shock relegation from Division One, Sayers skippered them to a draw against runners-up Warwickshire at Edgbaston and a victory over Somerset at Headingley.

The left-hander, who will be a first-time father this Christmas, stepped in for the injured Andrew Gale.

The positive performances came on the back of a Headingley horror show against Warwickshire at the end of August, which forced the players into a dressing room meeting about their team spirit.

Sayers is hoping that another stirring display against Kent at Headingley in April will set the tone for a 2012 promotion bid.

“We owed something to the membership and all our supporters who had stuck by us throughout the summer and it was a very uplifting way to end last season,” he said.

“I think those two matches should be the model of how we move forward in terms of both how we play our cricket outside the dressing room and how we go about things inside it as well.

“There was a great deal of support from team-mates within that nine days of cricket, a positive energy and a freedom to go out and play with instinct.

“We’ve had time to brush ourselves down and take on the chin the club’s disappointment of what happened.

“That’s also helped us to summon the determination and energy to get back up again and get on with it.

“We’ve got a squad full of characters who have the mental strength to do that quite quickly. There’s a good feeling in the squad now; a good energy.”

Yorkshire’s players have been back in pre-season training since the start of November.

They are currently on a four-and-a-half day fitness programme, with cricket skills starting early in the new year.

New first-team coach Jason Gillespie is spending this week with the squad at Headingley before returning to Zimbabwe to complete his duties with the Mid West Rhinos.