Braintree Cricket Club captain Will Jackson wants the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship top flight to fear his team.

During their march to the division two title and promotion into division one last year, Jackson said Braintree commanded a level of fear among sides coming up against them and he wants to get that in the next level up now.

It has been a tough start to the campaign since their elevation, but Braintree appear to have found their feet with impressive wins in both of their last two outings and Jackson wants them to build on that now to strengthen their position among the Two Counties’ elite.

The skipper is still sidelined by a wrist injury, but having seen his team beat first Haverhill and then local rivals Halstead last weekend, he wants them to continue their run when they host Mistley at St Peter’s Road on Saturday.

“We have clawed it back and we now know that one win against Mistley could take us a long way up the table,” said Jackson. “It would allow us to pull away from Mistley, but it will also mean teams start to look at us and will start looking at us with a bit of fear.

“We had that last year (in division two) where people feared us and we want that fear factor to spread into division one.

Continued on page 55 “We fear no-one, but we want others to fear us and we want that message to go out there.

“Halstead were doing well and beating them was an important step for us.

“Confidence is very high now - it’s amazing what a couple of good results can do for you.

“Our spirit was never in doubt and we’re very tight off the pitch, but the confidence is stronger now and we’ll be looking to carry that on into this next game.

“We are at home, so we have that advantage of them having to come to us knowing that they have to score runs as that’s what you have to do to win at Braintree.

“Teams always have to come to us and post a score so I think they are under a bit of pressure and the confidence of winning three in a row to take into the Copford game would be immense.

“To put two good results and performances together like we have in the last two weeks is very good and with the next two being winnable games for us, it gives us the chance to keep building on them.”

Dave Hale is expected to drop out of the side for the game against Mistley due to a shoulder injury.