CAPTAIN Richard Marshall is glad that Witham Hockey Club men's first-team's promotion destiny lies in their own hands as they head into a crunch part of their season.

Witham returned from a lengthy mid-season break with a 3-0 win against Wapping fifths last weekend that placed them second in the East League division three south east table.

It was a win that extended their winning sequence to five games and with two teams assured of a move up into division two south next season, Marshall is understandably keen to keep the run going.

Witham, who were relegated from division two south last year, now head to eighth-placed Brentwood seconds on Saturday and the skipper is laying down a challenge for his players to remain unbeaten.

"Promotion was always the priority from the outset this year," he said.

"We had a bit of an indifferent start and we found ourselves seven points behind Maldon, who were second, at one point, but we got ourselves on a good run and we are now in a very good position in the promotion spots.

"There are two teams who are guaranteed to go up so we are in there now and I can see no reason why we shouldn't look to stay unbeaten.

"We know we are better than the teams below us, so it's just a case of us not being complacent and slipping up.

"We can't take our eye off it and have to keep doing what we have been doing, especially against the lower-placed sides.

"What is important is that it's in our own hands and that gives everyone something to focus on."

The win against Wapping came courtesy of a Matt Campbell brace and a Billy Belsham strike and although his team took a while to get going after a lengthy Christmas break, Marshall was pleased to return with another three-point haul.

He added: "Wapping are a big club and they have a lot of young and fit guys so it was a hard game to come back to after a seven-week break.

"But we worked well and broke them down gradually, which wore them down and it was good to come away with the points.

"It was an important game to win as we had won our previous four games before Christmas and it was important to continue that.

"To be honest, the break came at a bad time for us as we were gathering momentum before Christmas, so it was very good to get the win in our first game back and also having seen the previous week's game postponed due to the weather.

"It was a hard game to come back to, but the three points were vital.

"It was one of those where the result was perhaps more important than the performance, but hopefully we have got rid of any cobwebs now and we are in a good place to push on from."

Witham are at Brentwood seconds on Saturday, before a home game against bottom-placed Thurrock and then a trip to leaders East London seconds.

Marshall said: "We can focus on the next two games and we know that there's no reason why we should not get six points from them before we head to East London, where we'll be looking to get another result.

"We felt unfortunate to lose (4-2) to them earlier in the season at home as we had a couple of players out injured and I had to go off after five minutes, so we know we can do better when we go there for the return game in a couple of weeks.

"But we have to focus on the next two before that and make sure we get six points from them."