WHILE his team may have started their Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship season with a loss, Witham Cricket Club captain Jake Wakelin knows they can enjoy derby day delight this weekend.

Witham’s campaign started with a 24-run defeat at Woolpit last weekend, but they will be hoping to bounce back when they host old rivals Braintree at the Park on Saturday.

Wakelin said a few key moments in the field stood between his team and a win against Woolpit, but he feels that if they play to their potential, then they should have enough to post a first win.

Wakelin said: “Braintree made a good start against Wivenhoe (last weekend) and they may feel they are favourites, but I know that if we play to our ability then we will win.

“That’s what happened last year.

“I know that we have four or five real match-winners in our team.

“We aren’t disheartened by the result at Woolpit; we lost to a good side, but it was a game we could have won and if we play to our ability against Braintree then I know we can get our first win on the board.”

Wakelin said there may be some selection headaches for the derby clash as he had several players, including Leroy Facey and James Suett, back available for Saturday.

They were missing last weekend when Wakelin said the old adage of ‘catches win matches’ rang very true for his team.

“If I’m honest, the scorecard doesn’t tell the story of the game,” he added.

“We started brilliantly.

“Matt McKendry bowled superbly with pace and movement of the ball and he was backed up by Matt Anderson at the other end.

“It was a great display by Matt McKendry and it’s showing that he has got himself fitter.

“You can really see the improvement, just from his fitness levels, as he has put an extra yard of pace on and has real control - I felt he deserved more than the four wickets that he took.

“It helped give us a great start against a Woolpit side who have just come down from the Premier League and who I think are favourites to win our league this year.

“We had them at 40 for four as we’d bowled well and had backed that up with brilliant fielding, but we then went and dropped four catches and I think that cost us the game in the end.

“We started well with the bat and it was great to the younger players doing so well.

“We’d given them their chance but Michael Glynn and Michael Godwin both came in and looked so comfortable.

“I think we actually batted better than Woolpit and had we caught those catches, I think we’d have had a total that we’d have chased down comfortably.

“In the end, the result was a negative, but it was a hard game against a team who have been playing Premier League cricket for a long time and I thought we played better cricket than them - bar the dropped catches.

“We were good in the field apart from that, so there are good signs there for us.

“The boys certainly aren’t disheartened.”

Wakelin also saw action for another side last weekend as he featured for Suffolk in their Minor Counties Cup clash with Hertfordshire.

The Witham captain scored 23 and took two wickets, but his team were on the end of a two-wicket defeat in the final over.