Surrey edged ever closer to relegation from division one of the LV County Championship after another shocking performance at home to Hampshire.

A disastrous final day, losing thirteen wickets and slipping to a heavy defeat by an innings and 122 runs, summed up the Brown Caps woeful campaign.

Alan Butcher's side must now hope that Lancashire or Yorkshire lose both their remaining fixtures and they heavily beat Nottinghamshire in their final match, which began at The Oval yesterday (Wednesday).

However, even that sequence of results will probably not be enough and many Surrey fans have already accepted the fact that their team will be playing division two cricket next season.

A downtrodden Butcher admitted as much after the Hampshire game ended last week.

"It appears that its going to be division two cricket for us next year," he said. "It's been a bitterly disappointing season.

"We played some good stuff at the start but since then, it seems whatever can go wrong has gone wrong.

"I have bored people by saying it, but we have dropped 45 catches and that has had a huge affect on the confidence of the side, especially the bowlers.

"You can't expect to win games when you drop that many chances."

Debutant Shoaib Akthar made little impact on debut, taking 1-54 from 18 overs as the Hawks racked up a mammoth 480-8 declared.

Surrey's response was feeble, getting rolled out for 210 and then a pitiful 148 in the second innings.

"The batters let us down badly in this match," said Butcher.

"It was a good track but we decided to bowl first, perhaps that was a sign of the lack of confidence.

"But, it was still a good Oval wicket when we were batting and we just didn't get anywhere near enough runs.

"There is a long way to go before next season starts but we've already spoken to quite a few players.

"We have given the youngsters a go this year, but no one, barring Jade Dernbach, has really stood up and demanded a place in the side.

"We've tried that route and now maybe we will have to look at bringing players in."

One bright spot for Surrey was Saturday's Pro40 victory over Leicestershire. The Brown Caps set a total of 204-5 thanks mainly to an encouraging knock of 74 from Chris Murtagh.

In reply the Foxes fell well short, bowled out for 171. Dernbach was the pick of the bowlers with 4-28.