DIRECTOR of cricket Steve Rhodes believes Worcestershire's players are "recognising the need to be ruthless" and to "keep the foot on the throat" of opponents now they are becoming more experienced.

Rhodes was delighted with the way the way the County kept a grip on the opening game at Glamorgan apart from one session mid-way through the first day as they triumphed by eight wickets.

Now they are gearing up for the opening home Specsavers County Championship match tomorrow against a fellow in-form team in Northamptonshire at New Road (11am).

Rhodes has plenty of respect for the visitors, who have won their last five Championship matches - at the end of last season and start of this one - but said: "we certainly don't fear them."

He said: "I was delighted with the boys’ efforts and performance at Glamorgan. Sport is a massive thing regarding momentum and in football it is 90 minutes and you can lose momentum, gain momentum.

"In cricket it is over four days and luckily for us I felt there was only one period where we lost momentum which was the back-end of their innings and then the start of our first innings.

"We managed to wrestle that back through a wonderful partnership between Tom Fell and Joe Clarke under pressure.

"What was really pleasing was we then managed to keep that momentum all the way through to the end of the game."

Rhodes added: "There have been times probably when we have not put our foot down on the throat and finished it all off.

"Glamorgan was an example where we made sure that wasn't going to wrestled away from us.

"The lads are a lot older now, certainly a bit more experienced, and recognise the necessity to be ruthless."

Northamptonshire have won their opening two Championship matches against Glamorgan and Derbyshire.

Rhodes said: "They are a very dangerous team and I think they have won their last five Championship matches.

"They are on an incredible run. It won't be an easy contest. It is going to be a difficult contest.

"When they get their tails up, they can be a difficult bunch to play against. We respect them as an outfit.

"We certainly don't fear them though - and if we can repeat and lift our performance even more from the SWALEC then we will be hard to beat."