ONE way or another, the LV County Championship season at the County Ground looks set to finish with a winner.

There were 16 wickets on the first day of Derbyshire's match against Gloucestershire and the home side emerged with just about the better of the exchanges in a match they have to win, simply to avoid being completely written out of the promotion frame.

But the loss of five potential batting points may mean that even a victory from here may not be enough.

With plenty of movement off the pitch and through the air on offer, Derbyshire could have really done without losing the toss and, following the inevitable Gloucestershire decision to put them in, they were bowled out for 188.

It was not a great batting performance but Steve Stubbings was the big exception to that.

Drafted in when Wavell Hinds suffered a pulled muscle just below the shoulder and sent in way down the order at six, this was Stubbings' first Championship chance for 11 weeks and he responded with a precious 62 not out.

The fact that it was his highest first-class score of the season and only his second half-century, tells the story of why he was left out of the side and also indicates how important a knock it was for him, his team and, maybe, his career.

Stubbings' first task was to stop the rot as he joined Chris Rogers with the score at 54-4.

Anthony Ireland took three of those wickets and, after David Brown softened Rogers up by feeding him three boundary balls in his first over, the Gloucestershire medium-pacer produced an unplayable rising delivery to have the skipper caught behind for 40 and put Derbyshire in even deeper trouble at 76-5.

Brown, with previous best figures of 2-25, went on to rip through the bottom of the Derbyshire order and finish with 5-38 in 6.5 overs and though Graham Wagg made 29 and Charl Langeveldt 21, the decline was too swift.

Stubbings, who cannot have batted with the tail that often, tried his hardest to protect his partners and take on a more aggressive role, driving sweetly on his way to 10 fours.

But before the innings was over, Stubbings also had to call for a runner after pulling up with pain at the top of his hamstring.

By the time Derbyshire took to the field, they were also without Dan Birch, who was unwell. Put alongside the loss of Hinds, Jon Clare (sore back) and Jamie Pipe (calf), the Derbyshire dressing room is looking decidedly end of season.

Thankfully, Wagg was not among the casualties because his burst of four wickets for five runs in 19 balls put Derbyshire back in a strong position.

Langeveldt broke an opening stand of 23 when he had Kadeer Ali caught behind but Gloucestershire had moved tentatively on to 62-1 when Wagg struck for the first time.

After removing Will Porterfield and Hamish Marshall, Wagg made Alex Gidman his 50th first-class victim of the season and added the scalp of Brown for good measure.

Gloucestershire contributed to their own downfall when Steve Snell called Chris Taylor through for a suicide run and the hapless Taylor was run out by a direct hit from Greg Smith at mid off.

Bad light cut play short by 16 overs with the away side 98-6, still trailing by 90. Derbyshire cannot allow any late-order heroics but will also have to bat better themselves if they are to take a victory which will, at least, end their home season on a high note.