This time last year, Yorkshire were on the crest of a wave, having won three and drawn two of their first five Championship matches to take them into second place in the Second Division table, and they stayed among the top three promotion sides all season, despite a bumpy ride later on.

What a different scenario to this year when the merry month of May has been far from happy for Yorkshire, who are still seeking their first win in the competition after five matches.

At the conclusion of the rain-ravaged Roses tussle at Headingley, Yorkshire were languishing third from the bottom of the table and the situation was even bleaker than it appeared on the surface because bottom team Middlesex had two games in hand, and Nottinghamshire, in the penultimate spot, had one as did every other side in the First Division at that stage.

Yorkshire can count their blessings that only two teams will be relegated this season, as opposed to three in previous years, but the stark truth is that unless they shake themselves out of their torpor pretty soon then they seem destined to fall through the trap-door.

In the recent past, Yorkshire have got off to flying starts and then lost some of their momentum but director of cricket David Byas is hoping that the opposite will be true this year and that they will come good after a woefully weak opening.

Unfortunately, their form in the second half of last summer does not suggest that Yorkshire are currently going through a short bad patch. Although they did not lose a match all season until the very last one at Northampton, neither did they win a game after beating Leicestershire at Scarborough on July 23.

This means that they have been consistently below par since that victory and in 12 Championship games played between then and now they have drawn nine and lost three.

It's not what Yorkshire were wanting or expecting in a year which has already seen them buy the cricket ground at Headingley and set on a young and ambitious new chief executive in Stewart Regan.

The pressure is now greater than ever on Byas and his coaching team to come up with some good results because they are now well embedded in their jobs and there is simply no-one else to take the rap.

I hope that Byas can pull it round because nobody can be more conscientious or dedicated to the cause in summer and winter alike than the former captain who led Yorkshire to their first Championship title in 33 years in 2001.

Byas is not a man to make excuses but it's only fair to point out that unforeseen circumstances have not helped Yorkshire during the first few weeks of the season, particularly as far as the bowling is concerned.

As Yorkshire began their build-up, it was generally assumed that they would have one of the strongest fast bowling attacks in the country with Matthew Hoggard being present at the start to complement new signing Jason Gillespie from Australia and South African Kolpak paceman Deon Kruis, who was Yorkshire's leading wicket-taker last summer with 64 dismissals at 30.64 runs apiece.

But then England kept Hoggard in India after the Test series had finished in order to strengthen their injury-hit one-day squad and he was given a few weeks off upon returning to his Baildon home.

This meant that, instead of playing in Yorkshire's first three Championship fixtures before reporting back for Test duty, he was only able to appear in the match against Sussex at Headingley.

The signing of Gillespie sent a buzz around Headingley but the Australian won a last-minute recall to Australia's Test side and the short tour of Bangladesh resulted in him joining up with Yorkshire after the start of the season and then having to adapt to vastly different playing conditions.

So far, Gillespie has worked very hard but without much success and, although he has sent down 147.1 overs in his four Championship matches, he has taken only eight wickets and each one has cost him almost 50 runs.

The third blow came when Kruis broke down with a torn calf muscle on the eve of the new season, causing him to miss the first three matches. In the two that he has played, against Kent and Lancashire, Yorkshire's opponents never got beyond their first innings and, at Canterbury ,Kruis found himself bowling on a bland pitch.

None of these setbacks might have been so serious if exciting new prospect Mitch Claydon had been able to fill in more often, but after making his Championship debut against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, the young Australian with a British passport broke down with a side injury which ruled him out for the next month.

Darren Lehmann and Anthony McGrath have both been brilliant with the bat, Lehmann rattling up 533 runs from the first four matches in which batsmen have got to the crease, followed hard on his heels by McGrath with 505.

But they have been let down by their batting colleagues who have all either been poor or lacked consistency.

Yorkshire are a two-man band at the moment and Byas will not feel happy until more of the team chip in more often.