YORKSHIRE coach Wayne Clark today refused to press the panic button in the wake of the White Rose county's latest debacle.

His side were still smarting from the latest blow of being knocked out of the Benson and Hedges Cup by Essex at Chelmsford.

And knowing that former captain David Byas had bravely guided Lancashire through to the semi-finals with a rugged 91 against Leicestershire only rubbed salt into their wounds.

This latest humiliation for Yorkshire, thumped by seven wickets, comes on top of three consecutive Championship defeats and the title-holders will start trying to pick up the pieces by ending the depressing sequence against Hampshire at Headingley tomorrow.

But Clark is unlikley to make wholesale changes despite being unable to conceal his disappointment at the way his team had performed in yesterday's shambles at Chelmsford.

"We bowled badly but in any case we finished 30 runs short of what would have been a reasonable score," he said.

"The loss of Michael Vaughan, Anthony McGrath and Gary Fellows all in the space of five overs was a blow from which we never recovered and that probably cost us the match.

"Our bowling wasn't up to scratch and although Nasser Hussain's century was superb I thought we made it easy for him."

Clark does not intend making mass changes but former Harrogate batsman Vic Craven, now with Bradford League club Pudsey Congs, will be drafted into tomorrow's squad.

However, there was better news of Darren Gough today who plans to lead the England attack again by midsummer after a second operation on his troublesome knee.

Just how much Yorkshire will benefit from Gough's return is open to debate as the player is centrally contracted to England.

Gough has been forced to miss the Test series against Sri Lanka after breaking down in his comeback from surgery earlier this year.

He first went under the knife after returning from England's one-day series in New Zealand.

But hopes of reclaiming his Test place at the start of the season were dashed by a further setback.

However, Gough is now confident he can put the problem behind him and has targeted the triangular one-day series with Sri Lanka and India, which begins on June 27, for his international comeback.

The Yorkshire quickie said: "I want to be back for the NatWest Series. I think that is realistic. It is four and a half weeks away and that is my target.

"Then after that there are the four Tests against India, the ICC Champions Trophy, the Ashes and the World Cup.

"So there's plenty of cricket to come and I just want to look forward to being part of that.

"Of course it's frustrating to be missing out on the Tests now. It's disappointing not to have been involved at Lord's.

"We've got some big matches coming up later in the summer and it'd be nice to play in those."

Gough has not featured in England's Test line-up since the final game of the Ashes series at the Oval last summer.

His absence was sorely felt at Lord's last week as Sri Lanka rattled up a formidable 555-8 in their first innings before England dug their heels in to claim a draw.

Gough had been in contention to return up until the week before the match when he encountered further problems when playing for Yorkshire Seconds and it was decided another operation was required.

He explained: "I had a cartilage operation 12 weeks ago and was coming back from that. It was going well, but I started to get problems in other parts of the knee.

"So I had another operation last Wednesday to get it sorted."

Updated: 11:29 Thursday, May 23, 2002