Yorkshire’s director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon has used the club’s annual report to highlight why he felt his side struggled last summer.

The white rose county narrowly escaped relegation in the County Championship, winning just two matches out of 16, they bowed out of the two one-day knockout competitions and struggled in the Pro40 League.

Moxon felt that 2009 “mirrored” the inconsistencies of 2008, while he pointed to poor catching as an area that desperately needs improvement.

He wrote: “Too often we were unable to maintain the pressure on the opposition and let them off the hook. We missed golden opportunities when in good positions with both bat and ball.

“A very disappointing aspect of last season was the number of catches we dropped. It doesn’t matter what standard you are playing, if you drop catches you don’t win matches.”

Yorkshire’s inability to claim wins in the four-day arena was not just down to their own failings, but also due to the state of the pitches they played on.

Moxon explained: “I’ve mentioned dropped catches, but allied to that is that the pitches we play on are flat and produce a large number of draws.

“It has been particularly frustrating that the pitches at Headingley seem to get better as the game progresses rather than deteriorate.

“With this in mind, Andy Fogarty has taken off the top two inches of turf on the square.

“He has replaced it with finer soil and grass in the hope that the surfaces will wear naturally as the games progress.”

While Championship cricket is widely seen as the Holy Grail for each of the 18 counties, Moxon gave a special mention to his side’s backward step in coloured clothing from 2007 and 2008.

“I was particularly disappointed with our one-day results last season. We had done well in the previous two seasons, but the above points (inconsistency and dropped catches) are also relevant here,” he continued.

The ex-England opener did, however, praise his squad for their “ability to fight back from difficult positions in Championship cricket” and their knack of performing well with their backs to the wall.

“This gives me great optimism for the future,” he said. “We are trying to develop a squad that will be successful for a sustained period.

“We are working towards identifying the players we believe will achieve this. Although we still have work to do, I believe we will succeed.”