Sussex have been told they must be more ruthless if they are to mount a serious challenge for the County Championship title.

Ed Joyce’s men almost let Hampshire off the hook in their opening division one game of the summer before closing out a 92-run victory the final day.

Having completely dominated the first two days Sussex slipped up on the third to give the reigning division two champions hope before eventually finishing the job.

Coach Mark Robinson hopes that his side will learn their lesson from that scare going into tomorrow’s first home game of the season against Worcestershire.

Sussex will start as strong favourites against a Worcestershire side who were thrashed by champions Yorkshire in their opening game having been promoted from division two with Hampshire.

Robinson said: “It is strange our first two games are against the two teams who came up and in some ways you would rather play them a bit later on.

“At the start of the season they could still have some momentum from last year but all we can do is prepare ourselves the best we can.

“I expect every team in division one to put up a good fight so we can’t take anything for granted. Worcestershire play with a lot of enthusiasm and youth so I expect them to give it a red-hot go.

“It is up to us to go out and make sure we get on top and when we do to stay there. That was the only disappointment from the Hampshire game as we had our foot on their throat but released it and gave them hope when they shouldn’t have had any.”

The victory over Hampshire also came at a price with opener Chris Nash suffering a hamstring injury on the final day.

Sussex will be keen for Nash to play against Worcestershire as he provides a spin option as well as his batting and will assess his fitness today.

Robinson said: “He’s probably 50-50 for Sunday. It’s only a slight tear in his hamstring so it depends how it recovers but you don’t want to risk making it worse.

“I’m sure he’ll be all right for the Durham match but we’d like to have him tomorrow because we missed his bowling when he went off at Hampshire.

“Nashy’s bowling was affected last year by the problems he had (burst appendix) but he worked hard in the winter and was bowling well in pre-season.

"Hopefully he will be okay but if not then Yards (Mike Yardy) and Luke Wells can both do a reasonable job with the ball as spinners.”

If Nash is ruled out Joyce is likely to open the batting with Wells with either Matt Machan or Ashar Zaidi being drafted into the middle order. Sussex will definitely be without seamers Jimmy Anyon and Lewis Hatchett due to injury along with wicketkeeper Matt Prior.

Worcestershire will have to cope without all-rounder Moeen Ali who has flown to the West Indies to join up with the England squad ahead of the second Test, having played in their opening defeat to Yorkshire.