Lancashire's confidence lifted by tense wins - Peter Moores

Coach Peter Moores believes Lancashire got their rewards for a promising start to the season with tense victories in two consecutive Championship fixtures.

They followed a narrow win at Glamorgan with a three-wicket success from the penultimate ball against Essex.

"It lifts the mood, especially when you win like we have done," said Moores.

"They've been two wins for team spirit and belief, which is something we know we've got a lot of but last year we couldn't get it to work for us."

After rain-affected draws against Worcestershire and Kent - both of them games in which Lancashire were in the ascendancy before the weather intervened - the Red Rose claimed their first win since being relegated to Division Two, bowling out Glamorgan cheaply to win by 14 runs in Colwyn Bay on 3 May.

And they experienced another close finish against Essex at Old Trafford seven days later, successfully chasing down 253 from 47 overs with one ball to spare.

Moores told BBC Radio Lancashire: "Things rolled our way in both games but I think we've earned that. In the first two games we played some really good cricket, we got a bit of rain and we didn't get over the line."

Ashwell Prince, who hit 80 from 105 balls in the run chase against Essex and shared a third-wicket stand of 169 with Karl Brown, added: "I think it shows a lot of character [to win both games].

"On a day-four pitch, it could have been easy to try and bat out for a draw and play it safe. We decided to be positive and it paid off in the end.

"We played well in the first two games and got ourselves into winning positions, but because of the weather we lost a day in each of those games. I think we would have taken two wins out of four."

Lancashire, who lie second behind Northamptonshire in the Division Two table, are next in Championship action at Hampshire on 23 May.