DURHAM skipper Paul Collingwood had to suffer the indignity of three points on his disciplinary record after the two-wicket defeat by Warwickshire yesterday.

But coach Jon Lewis said: “He's a chirpy character, he won't let it get him down. We are talking about whether he will play on next season and it's looking fairly positive.

“There have been reports that England might offer him a consultancy role in one-day cricket, but he wants to play as long as possible.”

The ECB are clamping down on dissent and Collingwood was one of nine county players to receive a slap on the wrist yesterday. It would take a further six points for him to earn a ban.

His crime was to linger at the crease after David Millns gave him out lbw when he had nicked the ball on to his pad.

There was also an initial reluctance to depart when he was given out in the second innings, but umpire Graham Lloyd was satisfied that Collingwood was merely asking whether he was out lbw or caught behind.

There was another incident yesterday when, with 38 needed and three wickets standing, Rikki Clarke was given out lbw by Millns to the first ball after lunch.

Clarke marched off indignantly slapping his bat as though to indicate he had nicked it.

Durham complained about the ball going out of shape several times from early in Warwickshire's second innings before they succeeded in getting it changed.

There was also a suspicion that Millns and Lloyd were considering a points deduction for a slow over-rate until Durham got it back to an acceptable level at the very end.

Earning umpires' displeasure is never a good idea, but Lewis felt there was no need to stress that in the team meeting.

“We don’t get involved in that,” he said. “In this country we’re lucky that our domestic first-class umpires are of a pretty high standard.

“Everybody calls it as they see it and not everybody agrees with it. I’m sure Warwickshire at some stage didn’t. But over the course of a season, over the course of a game even, these things even themselves out.

“It’s not really for us to comment on that. We’ll look more at our performance to see what we can control.”

An unbroken stand of 38 between Jeetan Patel and Tom Milnes consigned Durham to a second successive defeat and left them in third place.

Lewis said: “After the Yorkshire game this was another tough match against a good side and we came up a bit short.

“It's disappointing after leading by 116 in the first innings, but I don't want to be over-critical of our batsmen in slipping to nine for four second time around. They were victims of some seriously good bowling by Woakes and Clarke.

“We felt if we could have got two wickets in quick succession we could have applied more pressure, but after one fell they kept moving forward.

“We are relying on 13 or 14 players and we will keep plugging away.”

Conditions were at their best for batting when Warwickshire resumed on 125 for two, with 140 needed.

They lost both overnight batsmen for the addition of 33, leaving the match in the balance.

After Varun Chopra fell to a leg-side strangle on Tuesday evening, both Sam Hain and Laurie Evans were taken down the leg-side by wicketkeeper Michael Richardson.

Hain gloved an attempted hook off Graham Onions to depart for 13 and Evans' excellent innings of 70 was ended by an inside edge off Chris Rushworth.

Tim Ambrose looked comfortable in making 25 but was tempted into nibbling at a short ball angled across him by left-armer Jamie Harrison and edged to Collingwood at slip.

Woakes made 14 before Rushworth had him lbw and when Clarke departed the pendulum had swung in Durham's favour.

Patel eased the pressure by lofting Rushworth over mid-off for four before slicing Onions to the third man boundary.

In a similar situation at the ground two years ago he made 50 to get Warwickshire in sight of their 257 target. But they lost their last three wickets for 13 to lose by 11 runs.

This time Patel rode his luck, playing and missing at least six times, to see his side home with an unbeaten 24.

Durham's last chance came when, with 18 needed, Milnes edged Onions just wide of second slip for four. He also clipped the winning boundary through mid-wicket off Onions to finish on 14 not out.