AS DURHAM attempt to stave off relegation they will continue to be without key men for the hectic four-match runin, starting at home to titlechasing Nottinghamshire on August 31.

Ben Stokes will miss that match because of England oneday duty but should be available for the trips to Lord’s and Edgbaston, with the key game at home to Northamptonshire in between.

Graham Onions has an outside chance of being fit for the final game, but it would be a huge risk to play him after so little cricket this season. Much the same applies to Mark Wood, who is still struggling to shake off an ankle problem.

“We are down to the bare bones but we will keep fighting,” said skipper Paul Collingwood after what he described as a “gut-wrenching” defeat at Old Trafford.

“We put in a monumental effort in an unbelievable game and if we maintain those standards we will win some games,” he added.

In an astonishingly dramatic climax Lancashire’s last pair came together at 90 for nine with 17 needed from five overs.

They sealed the one-wicket win with two balls left.

Durham now have only Northants below them and are six points below Lancashire but have a game in hand.

Collingwood was not happy when he originally saw the Old Trafford pitch, with the bowlers’ footmarks left over from the recent Test match giving Lancashire’s two left-arm spinners assistance from the outset.

They were able to turn the ball into the five left-handers in Durham’s top seven.

“I learnt something new when I spoke to the pitch inspector,” he said.

“You can only call a pitch unfit if it’s the protected areas where bowlers are not allowed to run that are misbehaving.

“Those areas played well, but unfortunately Lancashire bowled a very high proportion of balls in the unprotected areas.

“We had Scott Borthwick to turn the ball into the lefthanders and selected Ryan Buckley to turn it into the right-handers but unfortunately he was ill.”

In his first senior appearance of the season Buckley bowled only two overs. He was suffering from a stomach bug, which also appeared to afflict Borthwick as he vomited on the field while getting through 49 overs in Lancashire’s first innings.

In their second innings they needed 107 in 36 overs, but John Hastings, Chris Rushworth and Stokes had them on the ropes until last man Simon Kerrigan joined Tom Smith.

Stokes had just taken three for one in eight balls, but Kerrigan made 14 to go with his eight wickets in the match.

That tally was matched by Hastings, who also made 83 as Durham recovered from 82 for five to make 340 in their first innings.

Calum MacLeod, also a righthander, made 84 on his championship debut after being preferred to Gordon Muchall.

But Lancashire had two century-makers in opener Paul Horton and former South Africa Test batsman Ashwell Prince.

They gained a first innings lead of 81, which always looked likely to be crucial on the wearing pitch. Borthwick gave lefthander Prince a few early problems, but he bowled too many full tosses in finishing with two for 158.

Despite an unbeaten 45 from Collingwood, Durham were all out for 187 in their second innings, not helped by a mixture of ill fortune and poor judgement.

Borthwick looked unlucky to be adjudged lbw, Phil Mustard was bowled round his legs and MacLeod was run out after colliding with the bowler, Kerrigan.

A home win looked a formality, but Hastings bowled his heart out as he and Rushworth reduced Lancashire to 36 for five.

As they began to tire Smith and wicketkeeper Alex Davies settled into a stand of 43 before Stokes made his presence felt, twice splattering the stumps after pinning Davies lbw.

But when Borthwick bowled two long hops, which Smith put away, Hastings had to be recalled after bowling 11 overs in his first spell. He picked up another wicket and was left with four for 40 from 14 overs.

With 11 needed off the last two Kerrigan edged him to the vacant third man boundary, which was as close as he came to getting out. Smith, who had an excellent all-round game, was unbeaten on 35.