DESPITE making their best start to a season in almost 30 years, director of cricket Steve Rhodes insists Worcestershire must keep their feet ‘firmly on the ground’.

The County have won their opening three Specsavers County Championship Division Two matches and travel to Northamptonshire tomorrow (11am).

Worcestershire’s remarkable innings-and-42-run victory over Derbyshire on Monday was the first time since 1988 they had won their first three Championship games.

With the County also through to a home semi-final in the Royal London One-Day Cup, it has been a superb start to the summer for Rhodes’ men.

Rhodes said: “I think we've managed nine wins in 11 games and one tie so we are delighted.

“It is definitely a better start than we would have expected or dreamed about.

“To maintain it we've got to keep working hard and keep those feet firmly on the ground.”

Worcestershire lie third in Division Two with 67 points.

They are 10 points behind second-placed Kent and 13 adrift of table-topping Nottinghamshire who have played one more fixture than Worcestershire.

Northants are fourth inthe section, after two wins and a loss.

They have 47 points on the board.

Victories over Glamorgan and Derbyshire saw Northants win their opening two Championship matches for only the fifth time in their history.

Their only Championship defeat so far was at the hands of Worcestershire at New Road in April.

In a low-scoring thriller, Northamptonshire were set a target of 185 to win in their second innings.

However, Worcestershire skipper Joe Leach (5-62) and Josh Tongue (4-45) bowled the hosts to a 20-run success inside two days.

The teams then tied in a high-scoring Royal London One-Day Cup North Group match at Northampton.

Worcestershire are expected keep faith with the same 11 players who toppled Derbyshire, with young spinner Ben Twohig added to the 12.

Leach completed his third five-wicket haul in the last four Championship innings as Derbyshire were dismissed for just 98 in their second innings of a rain-hit match.

Worcestershire made up for the loss of 129 overs during the opening two days and secured a maximum 24-point haul to maintain their promotion challenge.

Rhodes said: “Our Championship wins have been really special.

“We've been quite powerful in winning in two days in most of the games.

“We've just got to make sure we keep them going.

“We know Northamptonshire’s side really well.

“We've played against them in the 50-over competition and the Championship and they know us well.

“It will be a keenly fought contested match as it was when they played at New Road.

“Neither side got 200 runs in four innings at New Road but it made for a fantastic game of cricket and either team could have won it.”

A series of key players missed the end of Northants’ Royal London campaign through injury.

But coach David Ripley said Alex Wakely, Adam Rossington and Rob Keogh were moving forward with their injury issues.

“The schedule is much better in that we can take advantage and get our proper practise back in and be ready for a good Worcestershire side,” said Ripley.

“We’ve had some good battles with those guys recently and I’m sure this one will be similar.

"The game we had at Worcester (earlier in the season) had lots of turning points and could easily have gone our way.

"I’ll expect much the same over the next four days.”

Worcestershire's squad from: Mitchell, D'Oliveira, Fell, Clarke, Kohler-Cadmore, Cox, Barnard, Leach, Tongue, Shantry, Lyon, Twohig.