Sussex are heading for a second successive Championship defeat after another batting display which promised more than it delivered.

With the exception of Carl Hopkinson, all their top five got established against Lancashire at Hove today but only the reliable Murray Goodwin was able to push on.

Goodwin made an unbeaten 77, passing 10,000 first-class runs for the county when he reached 40, and there were times during a baking hot third day when Sussex threatened to give themselves a decent chance despite conceding a first-innings deficit of 139.

But the stats do not lie. Apart from Goodwin and Matt Prior, no other batsman has made a century in eight Championship games so far and Sussex have only had six stands of 100 runs or more.

Thank goodness then for Goodwin. Like Stuart Law on the second day, he assessed what was required on a desperately slow pitch against a persevering seam attack led by the admirable Glen Chapple, who finished with four wickets.

Lancashire's bowlers did not offer the width he enjoys to play his favourite square-of-the-wicket shots too often so Goodwin settled instead for patient accumulation against both seam and the left-arm spin of Gary Keedy, who bowled 31 overs from the Cromwell Road end.

Goodwin normally accelerates after reaching 50, which this time came off 104 balls, but his next 27 runs took a further 69 deliveries.

The 35-year-old relishes this sort of backs-to-the-wall scenario and Sussex need him to stay there as long as possible tomorrow when rain, which is due to arrive at lunchtime, could also come to their aid. They lead by 84 with four wickets in hand.

Openers Mike Yardy and Chris Nash had made another solid enough start when Sussex began the long haul after taking the last two Lancashire first-innings wickets, denying them a fourth batting point. It left Law unbeaten on 158 which took his aggregate in ten innings at Hove to 886 runs.

Nash was squared up by a beauty from Sajid Mahmood but Yardy was rightly furious with himself when he under-edged a flat-footed cut at Chapple.

It looked like being the day things turned around for skipper Chris Adams. On five, he was reprieved by the third umpire when Paul Horton claimed a slip catch off Andrew Flintoff, who got through another 19 overs in his rehabilitation.

There were signs of the old Adams with a couple of lovely straight drives off Flintoff and a meaty six over long on but then he got an inside edge to a length ball from Chapple which dislodged his leg bail.

Prior, too, was grateful the game was being televised when Horton made ground from mid-wicket to hit the stumps but third umpire Richard Illingworth, after lengthy deliberation, decided there was too much doubt to uphold the decision.

For a while it looked like being a turning point as Sussex's two most reliable performers added 62 in 22 overs. Then Prior was horrified to be given out leg before after getting a big stride in against Francois du Plessis, whose low-arm leg-spin must have been more threatening than it appeared on the boundary.

Chapple bowled an exemplary off-stump line all day and after tea came back for a productive third spell which brought him two wickets - Hopkinson leg before working to mid-wicket and Robin Martin-Jenkins, courtesy of a sensational diving catch to his right at backward point by Steven Croft, which was a match-winning moment if ever there was one.

Flintoff twice hit Ollie Rayner towards the end, once on the shoulder and then on the helmet, but he, like his side, lived to fight another day.

How good has Murray Goodwin been this season?