RICHARD Dawson says his Gloucestershire Cricket squad cannot afford to have one off match session if they want to challenge for silverware this summer.

And the former believes the capture of England Ashes winner Geraint Jones to join Aussie Michael Klinger as co-captain of the country can help motivate the squad to renewed glories.

The new head coach got to work in earnest with his squad this week inside a marquee specially constructed on the County Ground to give his players a taste of practicing on grass rather than indoors.

The new campaign begins in earnest with an LV= County Championship Division Two clash with Northants on April 12, and Dawson expects consistency and improvement across all competitions - the Championships NatWest T20 Blast and the Royal London One Day Cup.

Gloucestershire enjoyed one-day success in the Noughties, particularly in winning the C&G Trophy in 2003 and 2004 plus the Pro40 Division Two title in 2006. But since those heady days, the trophy cabinet has been barren.

Dawson, who arrived at the County Ground from an assistant coach role at Yorkshire, said: “The main thing I talk to our lads about is rather than just pigeon-hole yourself into one competition, every day we turn up, we try our best and try and nail our skills to improve our consistency.

“You can’t have bad days or bad sessions. Every one of those sessions is important. I tell the lads every day when they come in that they have to be the best they can be.

“And means that, in the season, we cannot have off-days or off-sessions because, if that is what is going to happen, you are not going to win games.

“I know it sounds simple, but that is what I learnt from Yorkshire when winning the Championship as a player and seeing how they went about it as coach of the second team.

“It is about doing the basics well over a long period of time. That is what teams who win the trophies do. The lads have got a massive amount of talent and we can beat the best teams in the country but can we do it more consistently?”

Dawson believes that the older players, like Klinger, Jones and batsman Hamish Marshall can play a key role in keeping the talented twenty-somethings on the right path.

“A lot of them have played cricket at a young age so they have a bit of experience but it is just for the older lads to help them through in those tough times and keep re-affirming things with them.

“It is about keeping your emotions as level as possible and that is where the older heads will come in rather than the technical skills.

“And I think that is what Geraint will really bring to the squad, He has won the Ashes. That is not purely down to skill level, that is in the heart and the head, wanting to turn up the next day and play cricket.”

But Dawson insisted that Gloucestershire cannot just rely on a core of top players to bring back the good times.

The other first teamers, like new all-rounder recruit Keiran Noema-Barnett, from New Zealand, and players re-signed by ex-coach John Bracewell before his departure last year, like top batsman Will Tavare, will be decisive in deciding where Gloucestershire find themselves come the Autumn.

“John put together a decent squad of talented players and he did a good job in keeping those players here. So you have Craig Miles, Will Tavare, James Fuller and Liam Norwell who are all lads who can put in match-winner performances.

“Sure, we haven’t got the biggest squad so I think it will be a case of handling them through three competitions and not relying on four or five players.

“Kieran, who has just won a fifty-over competition for Central Districts back in New Zealand, has experience coming in. All these players are going to add a bit to the pot.”

So Gloucestershire will have to begin the season with a bang and Dawson admitted there is no space for taking it easy right from the word go.  He added: “We have got a tough start to the Championship, I don’t deny that.

“We have Northants, who were in the first division last year, Derbyshire, who have been in the first division two years ago, Essex and Lancashire, who came down as well.

“So we haven’t got time to bed in and have an easy month. We have to prepare as well as we can do and come the start of the season, we have to be firing.

“Because that is how I look at it. That first month of the Championship really does set you up for the rest of the season so we have to be properly switched on by then.”