MICHAEL Brown will tonight face his former Middlesex teammates for the first time since leaving Lord's for the Rose Bowl.

Opening batsman Brown only played one limited-overs game in five years at Middlesex.

But he has been an ever present for Hampshire in the Twenty20 Cup, and made his totesport National League debut against Lancashire, his home county, on Sunday.

After that one-run defeat against one set of former teammates, Burnley-born Brown, an ex-Lancashire 2nds player, would like nothing more than a win against Middlesex this evening (5.30pm)

"I know most of the Lancashire lads to say hello to so it was just a shame that we couldn't get one over them, especially as we had their strongest side on the ropes," said Brown, who scored 35 against a Lancashire attack that included his former Burnley teammate James Anderson two days after Hampshire recorded their first Twenty20 win of the season against the Sussex Sharks at Hove.

He said: "We got so close and played pretty well, we just weren't quite aggressive enough.

"But losing that game would have been even harder to take if we'd lost to Sussex.

"We've been disappointing at Twenty20 so far but we're just starting to get it together.

"It's difficult to get Twenty20 right in the first six overs, that's the time when the field is at its most attacking and when the white ball does most.

"You're caught between trying to be very aggressive and keeping wickets in hand so that you can go ballistic towards the end.

"We haven't really got the right balance so far, we've lost a few quick wickets when we've needed to regroup.

"But we're just starting to get the right approach and with a bit of luck we should have a big home crowd roaring us on.

"When I was at Middlesex they weren't big fans of the Rose Bowl wicket so that could work in our favour, but hopefully it'll be better than the one at Hove.

"Middlesex have some good players but if we can get their top batsmen out early on we'll have a very good chance because they're not like Surrey, who had Adam Hollioake to come in at number eight."

Brown reckons Hampshire's batsmen could be more effective in the last two group games at the Rose Bowl, against Middlesex and Kent on Thursday, as well as the spinners.

He added: "The grounds we've played on so far have had smaller boundaries so our slow bowlers could come into play more and the proper batsmen should be more successful as the sloggers won't find it as easy .

"Dimi Mascarenhas, Clarkey and Chris Tremlett can all smash it, but our batting is about hitting proper shots which will suit us more."

Brown has struggled to score runs in the Twenty20 Cup since being called up as a replacement for Derek Kenway, and was out for a duck in front of the Sky cameras at Hove on Friday.

"It came as a surprise to get selected for the Twenty20 but after the Sussex game I got more text messages than I have after any other match - all telling me to get a wider bat!" he quipped.

"It's unusual for cricketers to watch a lot of cricket when they play it so much, but a lot saw the Sussex game because it was such an unusual contest. We've been disappointing so far but that win against Sussex eased the blow.

"What we need now is for the Middlesex players to get the sort of stick we got from the Essex crowd!"

Hampshire (probable): Brown, Clarke, Udal, Watson, Crawley, Lamb, Mascarenhas, Pothas, Tremlett, Taylor, Bruce.