GLOUCESTERSHIRE captain Alex Gidman apologised to his side's supporters after they frittered away their chances of promotion with a cataclysmic defeat to Derbyshire.

The hosts are now 23 points behind second-placed Glamorgan in Division Two and would need a cricketing miracle to be playing in the top flight next season.

Gidman's men were 70 all out, chasing just 125 to win, to lose by 54 runs despite bowling Derbyshire out for 44 on day one.

In a shocking few days for Bristol sport there have been painful defeats for City, Rovers, Bristol Rugby and now the cricket side.

"It is hard to sum up," said a disbelieving Gidman. "I am in a state of shock more than anything. It is really weird and I don't know what to say.

"We failed to learn from previous day and, when you haven't performed consistently over a period of time, something like that can always happen.

"I think we have blown our chances of getting promoted and it is bitterly disappointing to do it in that fashion."

Members were united in their anger at a performance that was all too familiar.

"I can understand the frustration completely," said Gidman. "We are all as frustrated as each

other. I am as much to blame as the next bloke. It has been a question of saying the right things but not doing the right things.

"It has been a question of the batting all year and I guess that when we do not apply ourselves in the right manner, it is like a ticking time bomb.

"I knew we were going to do what we did in the first innings with the ball at some stage because we are such a good bowling outfit, but the warning signs were there unless we really thought our way through our innings and, unfortunately, we didn't and we let ourselves down."

As on day one, Hamish Marshall was top-scorer with an innings in the 40s and Gidman revealed he had spoken to the batsmen about how to play.

"We spoke this morning about learning from yesterday," said Gidman. "Hamish spoke about how to bat in the conditions and it was a case of batsmen listening and agreeing but not following suit.

"When you are chasing 125, one partnership is pretty much all you need and we failed. There is no hiding place and no excuses. We are all bitterly disappointed and I guess all we can do is apologise to the fans and admit we have let ourselves down."

Downbeat Gidman added: "There is not a huge amount you can say. This has not been a one-off. We have failed with the bat many times. We are not being responsible enough with the bat.

"There are only so many times Jon (Bracewell, director of cricket) and myself can talk about it.

"Emotions are running high and I wouldn't want to say too much too early, but we have made the same mistakes too many times and at some stage we have got to address that but that is probably something for later on in the year."