Head coach Matt Walker is warning Kent's players they can’t afford many bad sessions if they want to be successful this summer.

Walker’s words followed Kent’s 10-wicket defeat to Lancashire in Division 1 of the County Championship on Sunday.

Too many wickets fell in clusters - most notably the evening session on day three which saw Kent staring defeat in the face as they slumped from 45-2 to 72-6.

The heroic batting of Ben Compton, helped by the unlikely resistance of Hamidullah Qadri, nearly saw Kent hold out for a draw on the final day.

But the damage was done the previous evening, and Walker knows they need to avoid such dips in matches, starting with the visit of Hampshire to Canterbury from today.

“It’s a hard slog and, if you want to win games, you have got to play really well pretty much all the game,” said Walker.

“You have got to make sure you don’t have a really bad session because that will cost you the game against good sides.

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“We know what their threat will be. Hampshire are a good side, but I will be saying this every week to you whoever we are coming up against. It’s not just a line - it’s true.

“All these sides have good players but we have, too.

"That’s important for us to remember as well. Let’s remember how good we are.

“When we play our best cricket, we are a match for anybody.

“We have to go full steam ahead, thinking we can win that game. Hampshire will be the same.

“This is the great thing about this division, that’s why it’s so exciting.

“There’s so many good sides that I don’t think there will be a runaway (winner). There may well be, but I predict there probably won’t be.

“Sides will beat each other week-in, week-out, so you have to make sure that you are on it. Not many of the lads have played First Division cricket. It’s tough.”

Even in defeat, Compton was in stunning form on his home first-class debut.

He became the first Kent player to score centuries in his first three innings as he was last man out for 115 to add to his unbeaten 104 in the first innings.

Walker admitted: “I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it! It may have happened but lots of records were broken and quite rightly so.

“It’s remarkable. It was a mind-blowing game for him at the crease with the amount of balls he faced, just the powers of concentration and patience, and understanding the situation with his smartness around his batting.

“It’s just a really incredible achievement.

“It nearly got us there (to an unlikely draw), albeit for quite a tough decision at the end which went against us. He didn’t deserve that with the way he scrapped.

“He played so well. It was just pure grit, patience and calmness during his time at the crease.

"It was a great lesson for everyone - not just the batters, but the bowlers - of somebody that’s very assured of their game and can deliver it over and over again, ball by ball. I’m so thrilled for him.”

Apart from Compton, only fellow opener Zak Crawley (54) and a career-best 77 from spinner Qadri, who also took a career-best 6-129 with the ball in the first innings, went beyond fifty.

Walker hopes the batters who missed out against Lancashire can learn from 28-year-old Compton’s display.

“What Ben did, there’s the lesson right in front of your very eyes,” he said.

“He’s somebody who has a limited game but how effective is it? He just stuck to his game-plan completely.

“You are not asking players to bat like him, you can’t do that, but (try and) take something out of that.”

Stand-in skipper Jack Leaning and South African all-rounder George Linde may be back from injury for the game at Yorkshire next week, although Joe Denly is slightly further away from a return.

Last time out, Hampshire suffered defeat by an innings and 17 runs to Surrey.