Chris Nash has urged Sussex to keep on hanging tough if they want to stay in the Championship title race.

Sussex head to Somerset today having drawn their last four games in division one to slip from top of the table to fifth.

But with the reward for a draw this season increasing from three to five it means Sussex have not lost as much ground on their rivals as they would have in previous years.

In fact, they are just 19 points behind Middlesex – who have won four of their eight games – and are in a group of four teams separated by only 14 points, including today’s opponents.

Sussex had to dig deep in the last match against Nottinghamshire to avoid the follow-on and Nash believes that determination not to lose is key to their hopes of success this season.

Nash said: “We are playing well and fighting hard. The key in this division is to make it very hard for other teams to beat you.

“You don’t want to be losing games as the table changes very quickly if you do. There are more points for a draw now so as long as we are tough and keep picking up points then I think we will do well.

“We walked away with 12 points from our last match against Nottinghamshire which is not a bad tally. It is important you keep building the points up like that and then when get a chance to go for a win you’ve got to make sure you take it.”

Somerset were the only team to beat Sussex this season when they derailed their perfect start to the season by winning by an innings and 11 runs at Hove.

Since then the weather has frustrated Ed Joyce’s men but Nash is hoping Sussex can get back to winning ways at a ground they have done well at in the last two years.

Nash added: “We won there last year in a really good game and probably would have won there the year before but for a bit of weather so we’re looking forward to it.

“We have got to go there and fight hard and try to turn the tables on what happened here earlier in the season.

“If we can get another win it would put us in a decent position at the halfway stage but the key is not to look at the table.

“We did that when we were top midway through last year and fell away a little bit which shows it doesn’t take long for the table to changes.

“There are seven or eight sides who have got a really good chance of winning it. It’s so tight that you can pick up two wins in a row and suddenly you are top of the table.

“We have just got to keep playing cricket like have and being tough to beat. We are not blasting sides out and getting millions or runs but we are fighting hard and staying in games.”

While Sussex have endured a frustrating time due to the weather in recent weeks it has been a frustrating season for Nash so far.

The vice-captain missed the first month of the campaign after suffering a burst appendix and then pulled a hamstring last month which has limited to just three Championship appearances.

But the opener showed he is clicking into form by making 41 and 86 in the last game against Nottinghamshire and is hoping that will lay the foundations for him to push on.

Nash added: “It’s been a bit stop start so it was really nice to get some runs.

“I’ve only had five or six innings but I’ve been feeling really good in every game and just not gone on to get a decent score so I was chuffed to bits.”