Sam Northeast on his way to a career-best 176 for Kent against Loughborough Picture: Barry Goodwin

Leading the side out against Loughborough this week was an honour and something I was looking forward to.

I have skippered the England under-17s before and also the Kent 2nd XI but I was a bit surprised when Farby told me on the way home from Headingley on Sunday.

We named a young team but we all have a point to prove, me included, as we all look to careers with Kent.

It was good to see RJ (Robbie Joseph) back and hopefully he comes through the workout with no problems and proves he is fit and ready to return.

Our poor start to the season has seen a few people having a go at us on forums and elsewhere and it’s tough going for us right now.

Everyone is allowed to have an opinion but my message to the knockers is that we are working hard on trying to get better and we know where we are trying to go as a team and I don’t think it’s an absolute crisis.

Understandably people want success now, not later, and the youngsters should be playing and developing in the second team but circumstances mean they are having to do it at the highest level.

The Glamorgan defeat was disappointing. We heard they were preparing a green deck at the SWALEC, we then lost the toss and were put in.

The ball went all over the shop in the first 20 overs and was virtually unplayable.

Jarre was batting out of his crease and looking to have a bit of a dart and the plan was to keep batters like Stevo back until the ball got older.

Teams know that we have got injuries to our bowlers. Last week we had both Dewald Nel and Matt Coles coming back probably quicker than expected.

Neil Saker bowled well early on, worked hard for his five wickets but we didn’t have the seamer which would have helped.

Colesy batted well in the second innings against Glamorgan and Yorkshire on Sunday – a win that was deserved. I gather The Times referred to matchwinner Ashley Shaw as a schoolboy tailender, I wonder if he read that himself.

Losing with a day to spare meant we travelled back early from Cardiff. It gave us a chance to see the floodlights at Canterbury get their first official workout in a students’ match on Friday.

They were impressive and the general feeling was all positive.