Andrew Gale: Lord's showdown is looming and we're really beginning to hit our straps

Yorkshire's Adam Lyth hits a boundary during his innings against Kent in the Royal London One-Day Cup.

AT this moment in time, the County Championship title race looks like going right down to the wire.

From the outside, you cannot help but look at the last game of the season versus Middlesex at Lord’s, although there is still a lot of cricket to be played up until then and Middlesex got over the line in good fashion this week and are playing some good cricket.

When you get to this stage of the season, you talk about holding your nerve and we have been there before.

For us, Leesy is coming into some form and Lythy is and me now as well and, hopefully, we can use that to really start hitting our straps.

I was happy to contribute with 83 in the Roses game at Old Trafford. I wanted three figures and was desperate to get there, but I did occupy the crease for a long period of time and in the context of the game, it was an important knock and I was pleased to get runs.

Coming to the business end of the season, I had said before that we can get our players in form, then it sets us up nicely.

I was pleased to contribute. In the context of the game, there was a lot of rubbish flying around on the field and it was nice to shut up a few of their lads.

We needed 219 from 30 overs at tea on the last day, but decided that the target was just too much and shook hands on the draw.

You have to trust the batsmen out there, I guess, and their decision and the pitch was deteriorating.

There was quite a lot of spin and with our left-handers in the top-order, it was probably a bridge too far. And I think that it was a good statement with us being none down as well.

The last thing we wanted to do was be holding out for a draw, seven or eight wickets down or something like that and it was a decent statement from us, even though we didn’t play our best cricket at times. We came out with our heads held high.