While there have been good signs, Australia have fallen short when it mattered, writes Malcolm Conn Michael Clarke's men were found wanting when it mattered most. ON Monday morning (AEST) this dreadful Test match will grind to an inevitable draw, ending what for Australia has been a dreadful series. No matter the encouraging signs of improved batting and the sustained quality of Australia's bowling, there is only one bottom line and it makes stark reading. Australia will lose 3-0 in England for the first time since 1977, when Dennis Lillee did not tour because of a back injury and the squad was riven by the subversive organisation of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. The only other time Australia has lost so badly in England was 1886, 15 years before the country officially existed beyond a lose collection of colonies. It is also the first time Australia has lost three successive series to England since 1956. An argument can be mounted that to an extent, luck conspired against Australia. Such have been the deliberately dry and dusty nature of these doctored pitches that the team which won the toss and batted gained a huge advantage. England did it three times and won. Australia did it twice and dominated matches ruined by weather. But that is to ignore the constant failure of Australia's batting when it mattered most. Australia was 9-117 in the first innings of the first Test at Trent Bridge when Ashton Agar presented a brilliant smoke screen, stroking 98 on debut to deflect the attention from most of those above him before Australia got to within 14 runs of England. In the second Test at Lord's Australia was bowled out for 128 and the fourth Test at Chester-le-Street the tourists collapsed from 1-147 to all out 224. That is the series in a few uncomfortable statistics. The disappointing result has nothing to do with imaginary dressing room dramas and all the other associated nonsense which gets peddled when the this Australian side plays badly. The dressing room could not have been happier or more relaxed following the shock appointment of Darren Lehmann as coach at the start of the Ashes series. In the end it made no material difference to the result even if the mood was different after drawing a line under the shambolic Indian tour earlier this year. It doesn't matter how happy you may feel if you can't bat in the conditions and circumstances presented. And if you can't make runs you don't stay happy or in the side for very long - ask Ed Cowan, Usman Khawaja or Phil Hughes. There will be changes for the summer. Keep an eye on Adam Voges. Good teams make their own luck. They win the big points. The final 3-0 margin is a fair result of how badly Australia played when it mattered. Australia has now gone nine Tests without a victory, the worst run since Allan Border's record 14 in a row during the mid '80s when the team was gutted by South African rebel tours. Back then Border was Australia's best player so the team was painstakingly rebuilt around him. The same must now happen with Michael Clarke, who has to rally his side in the face of a return Ashes series beginning in just three months followed by a tour of South Africa. There are hard yards ahead.