YORKSHIRE'S champions last night received a "kick up the backside" from coach Jason Gillespie after taking their foot off the gas during the closing stages of the season.

The White Rose outfit have endured a difficult last four and a bit days of County Championship cricket against Middlesex at Lord's and their latest match against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl.

Having lost their unbeaten record against Middlesex on Saturday, Yorkshire have been on the back foot during the first two days against relegation-threatened Hampshire.

The hosts declared their first innings on 400-9 during the second afternoon before reducing the champions to 62-4. They closed a day which saw 30 overs lost to rain and bad light on 82-4 from 34.

Adam Lyth and Gary Ballance fell for a second-ball duck and 30 to mark a miserable day personally as they were both left out of England's Test squad for next month's series against Pakistan in the UAE.

Lyth edged former West Indies seamer Fidel Edwards to third slip two balls into Yorkshire's reply before Ballance miscued a pull at Ryan Stevenson to mid-wicket.

"I thought we were pretty poor," said captain Andrew Gale, one of the wickets to fall having made just three.

"We've had a chat in the dressing room. I thought we bowled okay on day one but we have just lacked a bit of zip.

"There's a lot of tiredness about. We've done 320 overs in the dirt over the last five or six days and teams are grinding us down like we have done to them.

"That tiredness sort of gets into the batting as well. Tired minds, poor day – but we can fight back.

"Our standards have slipped but Dizzy (Gillespie) has given us a kick up the backside that we might need, so we'll see how we go.

"It's tough because you put all your efforts, everything you've got, into winning the Championship, going for a goal. Once you've achieved that goal, you never know how lads are going to respond.

"We still want to get that points record. That's one thing the lads have got between their teeth.

"The biggest thing was last week. If you're not quite on it, you're chasing the game. We've done it to so many teams ourselves and it's a lesson – more so to some of the young lads who are used to winning.

"I've played in sides where this was happening every week. It's definitely a lesson."

Sheriff Hutton Bridge teenager Matthew Fisher has been Yorkshire's stand-out performer.

He claimed two late wickets during an exhilarating afternoon as Hampshire, who started the day on 219-4 from 78 overs, added 77 runs in 6.5 overs to secure the maximum five batting points for reaching 400 inside 110 overs.

Fisher finished with 2-61 from 23.5 overs, while Hampshire batsman Liam Dawson scored 140 and Gareth Berg smashed six fours in 27 not out off nine balls to reach 400 in time as they fight hard to preserve their place in Division One.

There is the prospect of further rain in the contest and Gale is open to contriving a run chase.

Alex Hales and Zafar Ansari are candidates to open England's batting in place of Lyth, while James Taylor has been preferred to Ballance. York's Jonny Bairstow is in the Test and one-day squads but not the T20 squad.