STEVE Patterson reflected on Yorkshire’s record 433-run defeat against Kent at Emerald Headingley and admitted: “That’s as difficult a week as I’ve experienced.”

Yorkshire lost for the second successive game in the Specsavers County Championship, following up defeat against Somerset at Taunton last week with a reverse against Kent.

It was Kent’s biggest ever victory in terms of runs in their first-class history and Yorkshire’s heaviest runs defeat.

It was also the fourth heaviest runs defeat in the history of the County Championship.

Set a target of 551 late on day three, the White Rose slipped to 44-6 before close.

Jonny Tattersall hit 41 to drag the game to the brink of lunch on day four, with Yorkshire bowled out for 117.

Patterson said: “As captain, it makes it even harder to take than as a player because you feel more responsible for everything. You question yourself, ‘Is there anything I could have done differently?’.

“But the bottom line is that other than Duanne’s (Olivier) wickets at the start and Matty Fisher’s performance, I think we were all very, very below what we’re capable of.

“When you have that many players under par, it’s hard to compete with teams.

“It’s very disappointing. In the first 40 minutes to an hour of the game, we started really well. From there, it was all downhill.

“We lost last week at Somerset and were outplayed. You can accept that.

“But we came back here to home conditions and felt we had a good chance to win the game. Obviously after that middle session on day one, we were always up against it and never fought our way back.

“It’s a shame. To have two such heavy defeats back to back is really demoralising after some good stuff prior to that.”

Asked why Yorkshire were so poor this week in the face of a stunning personal performance from Darren Stevens, who scored a first-innings 237 and took seven wickets in the match, Patterson was at a loss to explain.

Was any part of it down to the fact that last week any chance of them winning the title ended with defeat to Somerset?

“I hope not. I can’t answer that question, but I really, really hope not,” he said.

“If there is an element of that from anybody, I’d be very disappointed.

“From my point of view, last week we lost, but you take it on the chin, come back and put in a strong performance.

“It’s our last game at home and we wanted to show what we’re capable of. We haven’t done it and have been thoroughly outplayed.

“It was a good performance from Kent, and we were nowhere near from nine or 10 players.”

Fifth-placed Yorkshire head to Edgbaston to face Warwickshire in the final round of the summer, starting on Monday at 10.30am.

Hampshire are third in the table two points clear of Kent in fourth. The two counties meet at Canterbury. Yorkshire are 10 points adrift of Hampshire.