NOW we at Worcestershire have won promotion, the aim is to go up from LV= County Championship Division Two as champions.

We need six points from our final game of the season starting at Essex on Tuesday.

The match is all the more intriguing because the south-east club are also battling for the other promotion spot to the first division with Hampshire.

First and foremost, we want to get enough points to win the title but we are going there to try and win the game.

I thought we were always capable of going up and promotion was within our grasp but there were half-a-dozen other sides who all thought the same thing at the start of the season.

But the way it’s come about has been a bit surprising. To be in the top two from the start until the end of the season has been an incredible effort.

To go 12 games unbeaten, winning seven and drawing five, was beyond anything we expected so to be in that position was great.

There was a brief blip with the defeats to Gloucestershire and Derbyshire but to bounce back the way we did against Surrey was excellent and we thoroughly deserve to go up.

It was a massive turnaround after lunch on the final day of that match at New Road. We were in big trouble with Surrey only two down but credit to the lads, they kept believing and got a couple of early wickets.

We kept it tight and continued to pick up wickets, with Jack Shantry taking 4-44 to complete a 10-wicket haul to go with his century, and to get over the line was fantastic.

With the way it happened, from thinking we were going to have to go to Essex and get something, was an amazing feeling but also mixed emotions.

It was a relief to get over the line but it meant that we had achieved at least one of our goals.

After winning the match, the celebrations started and I don’t think we left the ground until after it was dark.

We had a few beers and a few of the lads ventured into town afterwards.

It’s important that when you do achieve something that you celebrate it in the right way and we certainly did that.

I can’t fault the fitness levels of the players and there’s no team that works as hard as they do and it’s important that you enjoy those great moments when they come along.

The goal was to get promoted and we have done that.

Now the important thing is for Worcestershire to go up as champions and that’s what we want to do.