CAPTAIN Jake Wakelin is certain that someone in Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division is going to feel the "backlash" of the "old Witham" soon.

And he hopes it can come when they head to Braintree for a derby clash on Saturday.

Wakelin was disappointed with his team's batting display as they lost by four wickets against Woolpit last weekend.

But while he said that was "dreadful" the Witham skipper feels someone in division one will see his team score big runs soon as they rediscover the form that has taken them to top-three finishes in the last two years.

He said: "The batsmen need to start scoring runs as we have only had one hundred this year.

"Michael Godwin and James Suett have hit half centuries in recent weeks, but they're not scores that win you matches, so rather than getting out in the fifties and sixties, we have be making hundreds.

"They know at some point it will come good, though, and I know someone is going to feel the backlash.

"We have Braintree this weekend and then Haverhill and if we can win both of them then we will move quite a long way up the league because it's very congested in and around us.

"The game against Braintree is important to both clubs but it's not life and death - it's cricket; it will be a tough game, but no-one from my team will be over-stepping the mark.

"That's not what we do.

"It will be feisty, though, and we'll be up for it.

"Hopefully there can be the backlash that we're looking for and we'll see the old Witham again.

"I don't think we're far away from that as we have been bowling and fielding really well so I'm hoping that the Witham of the last couple of years isn't too far away - there's no reason why it's not."

However, Wakelin admitted that the Witham batsmen needed to improve from their display against Woolpit.

Only four players made it into double figures as Witham were all out for 114 and although the captain was pleased with how their bowlers tried to turn the game around, he knew the damage was done by their under par total.

He added: "It was a tough one to be honest and wasn't the result we wanted.

"The batters let the team down.

"It was a dreadful batting display, but the spirit was there in the field and we felt in the game still even though we only had 114 runs on the board.

"We had Woolpit at 70 for six, but unfortunately both myself and Matt McKendry had bowled ourselves out and we couldn't prise out the last few.

"We bowled and fielded well again - it's just that the batting was rubbish.

"Another 20 to 30 runs and we'd have been right in the game and that would have been good as I think Woolpit are the best all-round side in the league.

"However, our batting was shocking and too many people aren't knuckling down and taking responsibility for their wicket."