LANCASHIRE slumped to a three-day defeat to Yorkshire at Headingley to suffer their first Specsavers County Championship defeat of the season.

Lancashire slipped from 141-4 in their second innings to 209 all out, setting a victory target of just 60 half an hour before lunch.

Yorkshire, for whom Tim Bresnan had struck three times with the ball this morning, knocked off the runs with all 10 wickets to spare inside 21 overs during the early stages of the afternoon.

They take 21 points from their fifth match of the season to close to within two of early pacesetters Essex at the top of the Division One table.

Lancashire have still not beaten their closest rivals in the Championship since 2011 when they won here and went on to claim the title.

The decision of Red Rose skipper Steven Croft to bat first on an overcast first morning was viewed by many as the wrong call but Lancashire coach Glen Chapple defended the decision, saying his side just weren't good enough.

"I think the Yorkshire bowlers basically won the game for them on a pretty spicy pitch," said Chapple.

"They were pretty relentless on the first day and we weren't able to match that. I think it comes to down to old fashioned English conditions where it was really bowler friendly.

"We didn't live up to their bowling, especially Ryan Sidebottom and Ben Coad early on. They just hammered out a length and gave our batsmen nowhere to go.

"I don't think the pitch changed on the first day. We both had the opportunity to bowl on a bowler-friendly pitch.

"It does get worse here, there's no doubt about it. The impression of the pitch is that they tend to start fairly good here. There was some cloud around and having some rain after you've tossed up isn't ideal.

"But I don't think it was the toss at all. It was basically the quality of our bowling didn't match them. We have to take that on the chin."