ANDREW Gale believes Yorkshire’s position as joint leaders in Division One flatters them after completing a Roses win over Lancashire at Headingley today.

The Yorkshire captain saw his bowlers take the nine wickets they needed on day four as the Red Rose, bowled out for 173 just before tea, forlornly chased 349 in difficult conditions.

It means that Gale’s side have now won two of six Specsavers County Championship matches and sit on 88 points alongside Lancashire, who are top because of their three wins.

Tim Bresnan and Adil Rashid finished with four wickets apiece today, with Gale describing the overall match performance as their best with the ball this summer.

But he also admitted: "There are obviously still areas with the bat we can improve. The top five.

“We know we're not firing as we'd like, but it's not due to a lack of work ethic. I know the lads will get it right.

"The encouraging thing is that we're still winning games of cricket, and we're not firing all throughout the team. We know we haven't played that well.

“We played decent against Surrey. Two guys won us the game, really, in Rooty and Jonny Bairstow.

“In this game, everyone's chipped in throughout. We are still searching for an enthralling win like we've had over the last two years when we've rolled teams over.

"Our form doesn't warrant us being top of the league, but we are finding a way.

“If you look at some of the teams that have been successful in previous years before us, someone like Durham, they always found a way. It didn't matter if they got bowled out for 200, they found a way to get back in the game.

"It's about winning those key periods. I felt in this game, we've really dug in and done that.

"If we can get that top five clicking and Dave Willey and Matt Fisher back in the mix with the ball, Ryan Sidebottom as well, so we can manage workloads, we'll be in a great position.”

Yorkshire were only held up by one partnership today as Karl Brown (51) and Liam Livingstone shared 63 for the sixth wicket inside 32 overs either side of lunch.

Lancashire began day four at 41-1, and they quickly slipped to 98-5.

The first two wickets fell to Rashid and Adam Lyth, who were brought into the attack due to fading light. They struck twice in four balls to get rid of Haseeb Hameed and Luke Procter, leaving the score at 55-3.

Rashid, who had Hameed caught behind cutting, later got Livingstone caught at deep square-leg pulling and Tom Bailey top-edging behind.

The Livingstone and Bailey wickets were the first two of Lancashire’s last five wickets to fall for 12 runs in ten overs either side of the new ball.

Though Rashid finished with 4-17, it was Bresnan who was the standout bowler with 4-36, including Alviro Petersen lbw and Steven Croft bowled off the inside edge as he attempted to leave alone.

Gale will now have an injection in a troublesome right wrist and be sidelined for ten days.

In better news, David Willey will return from his abdominal injury in tomorrow night’s televised T20 Blast clash at Worcestershire, but he is unlikely to bowl.