LANCASHIRE must finally face up to the reality of Second Division cricket in the National League next season.

Sunday's dramatic win at Worcester had encouraged hopes of a great escape, but those hopes were shattered within 24 hours with another poor performance at bogey ground Bristol.

Lancashire had already lost at the semi-final stage of both the Benson and Hedges Cup and NatWest Trophy at Nevil Road against Mark Alleyne's one-day specialists.

And yesteday Gloucestershire, who are hoping to pinch Lancashire's National League title to complete a unique limited overs treble, effectively kicked them out of the First Division.

Lightning still have a mathematical chance of survival with two games left, at home to Somerset on Wednesday night and Sussex on Sunday week. But if Sussex beat Gloucestershire at Hove tonight, even that will disappear.

It has been a dramatic fall from grace for Lancashire, the National League champions in each of the last two seasons. The problem yesterday, as it has been all year, was the batting -- although they didn't bowl very well, either.

John Crawley won the toss and chose to bat, but Lightning quickly slumped to 45-4 against the Gloucester seamers.

Mark Chilton was beaten by a slower ball, Sourav Ganguly never got going and lofted a catch to mid off, Andy Flintoff was trapped lbw in his last leg appearance of the season and Crawley was brilliantly caught down the leg side by Jack Russell.

Neil Fairbrother and Graham Lloyd did their best to repair the damage with a fifth wicket stand of 56 in 17 overs, Lloyd making an encouraging return to form with 46 from 62 balls, his best one-day innings of the season.

But Fairbrother and Warren Hegg went in consecutive overs from the off-spinner Martyn Ball, Hegg to a stunning return catch, and only an intelligent 30 from Chris Schofield allowed Lancashire to muster as many as 157.

But that was never going to be enough after Tim Hancock gave Gloucestershire a flying start, and they cruised to a five-wicket win with more than six overs to spare.