WILL Smith is confident Hampshire’s attack can clinch a victory that would take his side off the foot of the Specsavers County Championship table.

A fortnight after being thrashed by Surrey after losing 18 wickets in two days, Hampshire need to take 19 against Lancashire over the weekend.

But Smith says the wicket is already showing more wear than that used against the Brown Caps.

“That should give us encouragement,” he said.

“The wicket against Surrey was a lot better, this has spun already.

“I wouldn’t say it’s prodigious turn but the signs are there. Daws was unlucky not to get a wicket before the close and two more days of decent weather and more use could see the ball misbehave.

“But we’ll have to be disciplined and bowl as well as we possibly can to take advantage of that.”

Smith is confident his seamers can capitalise on the deteriorating track, as well as the likes of Mason Crane and Liam Dawson.

He continued: “We’ve got two very good spinners who will come into the game more and more but we also have good seamers and there was a bit of extra bounce and carry if you hit a good length with the new ball.

“There’s also a little bit of swing so if we get the nicks the nicks will carry.

“Everything so far has gone according to plan since we won the toss but it will still take two days of hard work to get close to a victory and the guys are fully tuned in for that.”

Smith was delighted to not only register his first century for two years but finish with the highest score of his career.

“It’s always a grind with me, but they bowled well for the most part and I wanted to give the team a sizeable total by putting a lot of overs into their guys’ legs. That was plan A and hopefully plan A works.

“We’ll see how [today’s] first session pans out and take it from there.”