Ryan Sidebottom has warned Yorkshire that gaining promotion back to the County Championship's top tier will be no formality.

Worcestershire yesterday picked up the point needed at Durham to condemn the White Rose county to relegation for the first time since 2002, the year after they last won the Championship title.

The only thing left to be decided is whether Sidebottom and company will finish bottom of the league or not, like they did ten years ago.

It will happen if Hampshire beat Warwickshire at the Rose Bowl this week.

Yorkshire started this season as some people's favourites to win Division One, so they will no doubt start next year high in the list of runners and riders for Division Two.

But Sidebottom, who played one season of second tier cricket before signing for Nottinghamshire, said: "Everyone is fighting to try and play Division One cricket.

"We've got to work hard to try and come back up next year because it's going to be a very hard league.

"It's very disappointing because you don't want to go down. The supporters, the press, they all come and watch Division One cricket. It's going to be very tough next year.

"We'll have to sit down this winter and analyse where it went wrong and come back strongly.

"When we've needed to show a lot of fight, we have done. We just need to do it regularly, and at the start of matches."

Sidebottom took 62 wickets from 16 Championship matches this season, including a career best match haul of 11-98 in last week's win over Somerset at Headingley.

And the 33-year-old former England man admitted that, despite being crowned a county champion last year with Notts, he has no regrets about returning to his home county.

He said: "Not one bit. I've absolutely loved it. They are a great group of lads, and there are some young and talented players here.

"It's just not gone for us this season. Hopefully next season I can take some more wickets and get us back up to where we belong."

Despite good performances from the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance, Joe Root and Rich Pyrah, Yorkshire have returned a number of displays to forget in all forms of the game.

Sidebottom believes the defeat against Nottinghamshire at Headingley in April was key to their season.

Yorkshire took a first innings lead of 193 before having Notts at 167-6 in their second innings. But Steven Mullaney and Chris Read shared 150 for the seventh wicket to set Yorkshire 145 to win.

Only two men made it to double figures as the hosts were bowled out for just 86.

Sidebottom added: "We played all the cricket for three days, and to get bowled out for 80 probably set us back a bit.

"I don't think we won for five or six matches after that. That took a lot out of us, and I think we went downhill from that."