HEAD of cricket John Morris (pictured) gave no concession for it being the end of the season as he slammed his players for showing their "soft underbelly" following defeat on the third day at Leicester.

Derbyshire lost by eight wickets in their final Championship match after starting the day in a strong position. Morris was heavily critical of his side's fringe players.

"I'm an angry man and I'm disappointed it's the last day of the season because I'm going to have to carry this for a while," he said. "Some of them have been moaning to me all year about not playing enough. Here was their chance – you give them an opportunity to see what they are about and it has not been taken.

"I'm annoyed because I think there was a soft underbelly on show. It just shows you where some players are really.

"It doesn't take anything away from the fact of how well we've played in the Championship this season and it shows how important some of our bigger players have been and the depth we've got without them. It's all well and good playing on flat wickets when it's in the batters' favour but when it's tough and you have to battle, there wasn't a lot of that around. We got what we deserved."