Vice-captain James Kirtley is confident Sussex can avoid being sucked into a relegation battle despite the seven-wicket defeat by Lancashire at Hove.

One more win should secure their Division One status but Kirtley accepts they cannot afford a repeat of the first innings batting collapse against Lancashire which left them behind the eight-ball for the rest of the match.

They were bowled out for 277 yesterday when Peter Martin removed last man Jason Lewry in the fourth over of the day and Lancashire reached their victory target of 93 just before lunch.

Kirtley said: "The division is so tight that you can't afford to get complacent at any stage. There has been talk of us perhaps finishing in the top three but we have got to make sure we stay out of the bottom three first, that is the priority.

"The good thing is that we fought back well in the last two-and-a-half days against Lancashire and if we can take that tempo into the Leicestershire game I'm sure we can bounce back."

Kirtley gave Sussex a glimmer of hope that they could pull off an astonishing win when he removed both Lancashire openers in his second over to reduce them to 6-2.

Alec Swann was leg before and Mark Chilton caught behind as Kirtley took his tally of Championship wickets to 39 from eight games.

But acting captain Stuart Law and David Byas put on 54 for the third wicket to ease Lancashire nerves before Byas was caught off a leading edge to give Robin Martin-Jenkins a deserved success.

Law, however, was in superb form again after his 147 in the first innings. He cracked six boundaries and a huge straight six off Mark Davis before belting Tony Cottey to the mid-wicket boundary in the last over before lunch to secure a victory which drags his side out of the bottom three.

Kirtley said: "If they had been chasing 200 or 250 then it would have been a good game of cricket. We could have been in that position if he had batted as capably as we can in the first innings, but it was always difficult after we were bowled out for 240."

Billy Taylor is likely to replace the out-of-sorts Jason Lewry in the only change to the team to face Leicestershire.

Coach Peter Moores said: "Jason got better as the game wore on and he will still have a key role to play for us this season.

"Billy brings more control to the attack and he will be desperate to do well after being left out for this game.

"We need to go into that game hitting our straps from the first ball. The table is very tight."