Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell is striving to make his team the finished article in 2014.

His team ended 2013 in a blaze of glory with their Yorkshire Bank 40 triumph at Lord's in September; and also booked a home t20 quarter-final for the third year running.

Notts have a batting line-up which is the envy of many sides across all three formats of the game – which includes the likes of Michael Lumb, Alex Hales, James Taylor, Samit Patel and last season's club player of the year Steven Mullaney.

"Trent Bridge is a good place to bowl when you are bowling well but you can leak runs if you bowl poorly." Mick Newell

But for Newell there was one issue he knows his team must address if they are to challenge at the right end of the table in the four-day game.

Notts ended up in a relegation fight in the last few games of last season in Division One of the County Championship, but ended up staying up on the last game of the season thanks to a draw with fellow strugglers Somerset.

It was his bowling unit that came under the spotlight in the analysis of last year's domestic campaign.

"While I was happy with the quality of our batting, and it was our batting that stopped us from getting relegated, if we are going to start turning some of the draws into wins we need to start taking 20 wickets," said Newell.

"We only did that in three out of 16 matches last season.

"Our strength has been our fast bowling for a number of years and it wasn't quite up to the mark in terms of winning matches.

"We field teams that are fairly formulaic, with four fast bowlers in each match, and we'll be looking for improvement from them as a group."

Newell insists there were several factors as to why the bowlers were unable to get the job done in the red ball game.

But the Notts stalwart, who has coached the club for 11 seasons following his playing career at the club, is determined to get things right and as well as adding Aussie Ashes hero Peter Siddle to the attack he has also been given the green light to bring in a new bowling coach.

"If you look at the bowlers we've lost in the last five years, there's Shreck, Sidebottom, Pattinson and Franks is playing less and we have replaced them with guys in their early 20s," added Newell.

"And we also didn't have the services of our best bowler for a number of years, in Andre Adams, as he struggled through last season.

"From not really needing a specialist bowling coach with a bunch of experienced guys who knew what they were doing, I think we reached a stage last season when we were looking around and thinking we needed a bit more expertise and the aim is to provide that with this coaching role."

While rising stars like Harry Gurney – recently rewarded with a call-up to England's provisional 30-man T20 World Cup squad – and Luke Fletcher continued their development last season, one bowler who struggled to stamp his mark in the LV= County Championship was Ajmal Shahzad.

Shahzad moved to Trent Bridge during the last off-season in the hope it could rekindle his international career.

And while the 28-year-old, who last played for England in March 2011, shone in the 40-over competition with 22 wickets, he struggled in the four-day game as he averaged 43.26 in the County Championships during 2013.

"I'm not going to lie about it, 20-odd wickets at just under 50 is not what you sign a player for so he knows that wasn't good enough," said Newell.

"His white-ball cricket was very good so I am hoping he can take some confidence from that.

"It was a little bit of technique, a little bit of confidence. Trent Bridge is a good place to bowl when you are bowling well but you can leak runs if you bowl poorly and he was leaking runs."

Shahzad and the rest of the bowling unit will no doubt take great heart when they see Siddle walk through the door at Trent Bridge at the start of April, when he is scheduled to team up with the squad ahead of the first game.

"For the first time in a long time we have signed an overseas bowler instead of a batsman in Peter Siddle," continued Newell.

"As well as taking wickets, a player like that can set a good example. Look at his lifestyle, why is he playing for one of the best international teams and why is he successful?

"He made it very clear he wanted to spend a season playing county cricket and there aren't many people now who have that ambition because of the IPL, because you can make more money in one season in the IPL than you can in five years in county cricket."

And in terms of the season goals, Newell is clear: "As a club we would expect to be in Division One of the County Championship and we are about to go into our seventh year of that and there are not many people that can say that around the country, so there is a pressure in terms of that.

"And we want to be successful in one-day cricket from a cricketing perspective as well as a financial one but that's part of the fun and why we have good players here."

Read the Nottingham Post for more news and views from Trent Bridge.