Injured Surrey skipper Mark Butcher has backed his side to mount a Liverpool Victoria County Championship Division One challenge, despite crashing out of the Twenty20 with only two wins from their 10 games.

The Brown Caps closed their campaign with a seven-wicket defeat to quarter-finalists Middlesex Crusaders at the Brit Oval on Friday night.

Butcher was forced to watch from the sidelines, having gone under the surgeons knife to cure a troublesome knee problem which will keep him out for another four weeks.

But the 35-year-old Croydon star believes his side, currently being led by Mark Ramprakash, can bounce back in the longer forms of the game.

"When you get into a losing streak it can be very difficult to stop - particularly when the games come thick and fast as they have done in the Twenty20," he said.

"It has been very disappointing for everybody involved at the club that this particular campaign has gone so badly wrong.

"But there is a lot of cricket left to be played this summer. The championship is still very much up for grabs.

"We maybe near the bottom, but the top is less than a win away."

Butcher intends to give youth a chance once the Pro 40 campaign when it gets under way later this month.

Banstead's Matt Spriegel made his first-class debut in the Championship defeat to Somerset at Whitgift School prior to the start of the Twenty20 competition.

And Butcher wants to see more players like the 21-year-old play in the longer form of the game to assess the strength of the squad ahead of 2009.

"It is a very exciting time coming up to the Pro 40 games and we are going to give a lot of the young guys a go," he added.

"We want to give them a taste of what its like and to see where we stand in terms of the ability we have outside of our regular guys."