LANCASHIRE proved the bigger they are the harder they fall after failing to live up to their pre-season billing.

At the start of the season it looked like they were going to feature heavily in the race for silverware.

But it does not matter what the tables say in May, teams are remembered for where they finish in September. And for Lancashire that meant relegation in the Championship and an empty trophy cabinet.

An unbeaten run of 11 games during April and May seemed to have set the Red Rose on course for a memorable campaign. Comprehensive wins against Sussex and Worcestershire saw them in the top two of the Championship and they led the Totesport League.

Then June came and Lancashire never managed to recover any momentum despite a brief rally when the one-day circus began.

Some clubs would class a Twenty20 Finals Day outing, a C&G quarter-final and second in the Totesport as decent compensation for poor Championship form - but not Lancashire.

They were knocked out by arch-rivals Yorkshire in the C&G, should have made the final of the Twenty20 and were a distant second best to Glamorgan in the league.

The stuffing was knocked out of the season by two back-to-back thrashings in the Championship against Kent and Sussex. They did not manage a victory in June and, although a revival of sorts was engineered during July, there was too much ground to make up.

Warren Hegg's side did not notch another four-day win all season and their lack of a killer touch was shown up on more than one occasion.

You would expect them to come straight back up next summer. But, as has been shown, making predictions is dangerous.

Responsibility for the debacle has to be taken collectively by the squad. And, to be fair, they have never tried to hide the fact that they under-performed.

The glaring failure has been in the batting, where no one passed 1,000 runs compared to four in 2003. Given a full season Stuart Law and Mal Loye would probably have reached the milestone. But more was still expected.

On more than one occasion the likes of Iain Sutcliffe and Mark Chilton have got a start and not gone on.

Only one player performed to his potential and Gary Keedy can hold his head high after a career best season of 72 wickets. He can look forward to his Player of the Year award tomorrow.

However, never has the club been struck by such an injury jinx.

Lancashire did have chances but failed to grasp them. On at least four occasions they had sides in trouble in the Championship but failed to nail them.

At Cheltenham they had 150 overs to win the match and had Warwickshire, Surrey and Worcestershire in trouble.

This summer marked 70 years since the Championship pennant was at Old Trafford. Now it will be at least another two before that drought can be broken.