Skipper Sam Northeast says that time will reflect kindly on his efforts, alongside James Tredwell, to salvage their Championship clash at Essex against all the odds.

Kent looked on course for one of their worst ever defeats in County Championship cricket on Tuesday afternoon when they slipped to 128-7 in their second innings, having conceded a first innings lead of 362 runs at Chelmsford.

However in-form Northeast was joined by Tredwell seven overs before tea on the third day and the pair were still together 80 overs later, midway through the final afternoon as the visitors sought to stave off a seemingly inevitable defeat.

The pair put on a mammoth 222 for the eight-wicket, obliterating the 92-year-old Kent best for that wicket against Essex and the record for Kent’s eighth wicket against any side of 177, set by Geraint Jones and Yasir Arafat against Warwickshire at Canterbury in 2007.

After Tredwell’s departure for a career-best 124, Northeast was stranded on 166 not out as Kent closed on 370 all-out, just eight runs ahead - a total which Essex surpassed in just 10 balls of their reply.

Northeast admitted: “I think we can look back at it now with a sense of pride - though it still doesn’t make me feel any better at the moment.

“We nearly dared to believe that we were going to do it. We just kept ticking it over, and it’s a shame it had to end like that in a collapse.”

Tredwell produced the highest Championship score ever by a Kent player batting at nine, beating Matt Coles’ four-year-old record, and bettered his 123 scored against New Zealanders in 2008 - his fourth First-Class ton.

Northeast claimed: “It was great character from Tredders. It sums him up as a person really. In those tricky situations he comes out fighting. It is huge credit to him.”

He added: "As a batting unit we would admit we should have got more runs in the first innings, and even in the second here on a pitch that got flatter as it went on.”