Braintree Cricket Club captain Nick Butler can see the belief in his players that they have the potential to stage a real promotion push this year.

The Panfield Lane club have their sights set on a move into the top flight of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship and a five-wicket win against Easton last weekend meant they have now won their opening two division two games.

Butler said: “It’s really important to have a strong start to the season.

“There is a genuine belief among the team that if we play to our potential we are going to up there come the end of the season.

“We want to turn these back-to-back wins into a long winning streak and make winning a habit.”

Braintree will be hoping to extend their sequence of wins when they host Exning today and Butler feels they have the weapons in their armoury this year to stage a strong push for division one.

He added: “Our strength this year is how well rounded we are as a side. We have so much depth in the batting and many options with the ball.

“In recent years we probably lacked options with the ball which put a lot of pressure on our batting order to perform every week.

“This year is different; we have options of both spin and seam and can restrict sides and bowl them out.”