Braintree Cricket Club captain Will Jackson insists his team are not just chasing points making up the numbers as they head into one of the most testing periods parts of their season.

A home game against second-placed Wivenhoe on Saturday will kickstart a run of back-to-back fixtures against the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one’s top-three sides, with leaders Mildenhall and then Witham following in quick succession.

It will be a tough spell for Braintree, but one in which Jackson insists they will be looking to pick up victories.

He said: “We approach every game knowing that we can win, them as we feel we can beat anyone in this league and we’ll be looking to win all three. The intent is there and we’re not just looking to accumulate points.

“If a game slips away from us then we’ll have to look to take as much as we can from it, but heading into them, the first thought is that we want to put one over all the top three sides and if we can do that, it will set us up nicely for the next run of fixtures.”

Braintree will need a better performance than they had at Worlington last weekend, when Jackson admitted that very little went their way in a 189-run defeat.

A costly spilled catch and losing the experienced Steve Hale to a split finger while he was fielding didn’t help Braintree’s cause as Worlington made 315 for four and the visitors were all out for 126 in their reply, with Quincy Titterton top-scoring with 42.

“It was a bit of a disaster really,” added Jackson.

“We didn’t bowl in the right areas, which was disappointing as that had been one of our strongest areas.

“Josh Newman bowled well, but we missed a couple of opportunities, most notably dropping a guy who went on to make 85.

“It was just before a rain break and they would have been on 100 for four and we’d have exposed their middle order so it was a missed opportunity.

“Then Steve Hale split his finger open trying to take a catch and losing him was another blow as trying to field with only ten players is tough.

“However, we didn’t bowl well enough and didn’t create pressure and that’s what cost us so we’ll be working hard on that in training this week.

“It’s not panic stations, it was just a game when things didn’t go our way.

“We know we’re capable of scoring 300, but with Steve Hale at hospital, we were a batsman down and we lost a few early wickets so it was always going to be tough.

“They also had a bowler who had great day with the ball and it just wasn’t our day.”

Hale is set to be out for a few weeks after injuring his finger, but Rory Ainsley is set to return for the game against Wivenhoe and Jackson said he expected to hand a debut to 15-year-old Lee Fullgrabe after some impressive performances in the seconds and Sunday sides.