HE’S A dyed in the wool Yorkshireman and represented his home county for more than 20 years. But, for Bradfordian Anthony McGrath, the only way is Essex.

McGrath left a part-time coaching role at Headingley two winters ago to join another Yorkie Chris Silverwood as his assistant at Chelmsford, the place where, ironically, the batting all-rounder played his last match for the White Rose in 2012.

And he is loving it.

In the two seasons he and Silverwood have been at the helm, Essex have won Specsavers County Championship promotion and now sit top of Division One with six games to go.

They are 29 points clear of Lancashire in second and 38 ahead – and with a game in hand – of fourth-placed Yorkshire, who host the leaders at Scarborough tomorrow.

“Genuinely, having been at one club all my life, this really has been one of the best moves I’ve made,” said McGrath, 41.

“From the first moment I walked in the door at Essex, the environment suited my personality.”

This will be the first time McGrath has been back to Yorkshire in a professional sense since leaving, and it is a huge match.

It is the first of two four-day meetings between the two counties during the next couple of months.

Realistically, Yorkshire have to inflict a first defeat of the season upon Essex if they are to maintain hopes of winning the title.

“It’s gone really well in the Championship,” said McGrath, or Mags as he is fondly known.

“At the start of the season, I guess most people were expecting us to struggle. It took us a couple of games to find our feet, but since then we’ve played some good cricket.

“We deserve to be where we are, but there’s still a long way to go.

“We know Yorkshire will be a very tough game. We haven’t played them yet, but myself and Silvers know a lot about them.

“They’re normally very good at Scarborough, although they lost to Somerset recently.

“When you come up, you don’t immediately think ‘right, we’re going to win this’. But we knew we had good players and had made good additions.

“We just wanted to make our presence felt in our first game and not look any further.

“I guess being top of the league and points clear has crept up on us. But there’s no getting away from it, we’re in a very good position.

“Yorkshire away is probably the most difficult game we could come back with after the break for Twenty20. But it’s a good challenge.

“We’ve gone from favourites to go down to favourites to win it.”

McGrath admits it is “strange” talking about trying to topple Yorkshire: “This is my second year down here, and I was part of Yorkshire for over 20 years,” he said

“I’ve got brilliant and fond memories of Yorkshire, but my focus is with Essex now.

“From the position we’re in, all the niceties go out of the window at the start. We know what we can achieve if we play well.

“We’ll be coming up with a plan to nullify everything Yorkshire throw at us.”

Essex will be without England Test pair Alastair Cook and Tom Westley, but they will field Pakistan overseas fast bowler Mohammad Amir for the second time in the Championship.

“There’s still a long way to go, especially with the points system the way it is,” continued McGrath.

“We’ve still got Yorkshire to play twice, and anyone can beat anyone.

“We know what quality Yorkshire have got even though they may have been slightly off it in four-day cricket. If they get on a run, they’re very difficult to stop.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re right up for it on day one.

“If it doesn’t go well and Yorkshire win, the title race is wide open again.”

This game will be Ryan Sidebottom’s last at Scarborough before retirement next month: “You run out of words to say what Ryan’s actually achieved,” added McGrath.

“He just gets better and better.

“I know age is catching up with him now, and he’s picking up a few injuries. But he’s been a fantastic servant to Yorkshire, Notts and England.

“Since he’s come back from Notts, he’s been absolutely phenomenal.

“I played with him early in his career and again in my last year (2012) when he’d just come back to the club.

“He’s been a key part of Yorkshire’s success over the last few years.

“Hopefully he’ll be fit now for the rest of the season and can have a good send off.

“It’s going to be a good challenge for our lads facing him.”