Departing Kent head coach Matt Walker doesn’t expect the fact there is virtually nothing riding on their last match of the season to impact his players’ mentality.

Kent end the summer - and Walker’s time in charge - with a County Championship Division 1 trip to Durham from tomorrow, knowing they will finish bottom of the pile.

A 10-wicket defeat against Nottinghamshire at Canterbury last week sealed Kent’s relegation after a miserable campaign.

But Walker, who admits the match could be a chance to give some younger players a taste of first-team cricket, still wants to end on a positive note as they come up against ex-Kent wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson at Chester-le-Street.

“We will see what fit bodies we have got - that’s the first thing,” said Walker, talking after the Nottinghamshire match.

“It’s up to the new coach, with Cooky (director of cricket Simon Cook), to decide the philosophy of how they want to go about the project and the reset if you want to call it that.

“We have absolutely nothing to lose, really. I spoke in the dressing room about turning up and playing with some real pride, and trying to finish off the season with some positives.

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“Whatever that side looks like, it may well be a good opportunity to play a couple of younger players to give them a taste of it.

“The fact it’s the last game of the season on the back of a pretty tough season, I don’t think that will affect their thinking or their mentality. It will be good to give them some opportunities.

“We’ll see. We’ll sit down and work out where everyone is at, then we’ll go to Durham and try to finish off with some positives.”

Young wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Dawkins, who has impressed for England under-19s, won’t be available due to an England Cricket Board selection rule.

They have headed north with one red-ball victory all season and Walker says they simply haven’t got themselves into enough winning positions.

Walker said: “We just haven’t been able to get ourselves into any game, really, other than the Lancashire game.

“You have to give yourself an opportunity to get into winning positions - and that’s what we haven’t done. We haven’t, at any stage, gained any control of games.

“There have been good moments in games but generally they have been when we’re on the back foot. There’s been glimpses in part.

“But what has happened - and it’s been the case for a little while now - is that our bad sessions are horrific sessions.

“That first session of the Nottinghamshire game was a pretty horrific session. Them scoring 146 in the first 28 overs of the game, when you have had a new ball in your hand on a fresh wicket in cloudy conditions, that’s a pretty terrible session.

“Then on the morning of day three, to go from 80-0 to lose seven wickets, that’s a disastrous session. You just cannot have those sorts of sessions at this level of cricket.

“You cannot get away with it and you cannot recover, unless you’re able to do the same to the opposition.

“We haven’t been able to do that at all this year and you have had to try and - somehow - either salvage a draw or do something miraculous to get yourself into a winning position from that point.

“Sides just don’t allow it.

“The quality of opposition we have had against us this year has been too good and we haven’t been good enough.”

Kent squad to face Durham: Bell-Drummond, Jaydn Denly, Joe Denly, Evison, Finch, Gilchrist, Leaning, Muyeye, O’Riordan, Parkinson, Quinn, Singh, Stewart.