CAPTAIN Josh Wells feels Halstead Cricket Club's four-wicket win against Witham can send out an important message to the rest of Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one.

And the Halstead skipper wants his players to build on a result against a Witham side who are fancied for the title this year as they look to pull themselves up the top-flight standings.

It has been a frustrating start to the campaign for Halstead and while it is still early days, their win last weekend was only their second success.

They were unable to kick on after their only other win - against Ipswich four weeks ago - so Wells is looking for his players to take confidence from beating Witham and string a run of positive results together.

"Everyone knows we are a strong team and a result like this sends out a message," said Wells.

"It shows that we are capable of beating anyone, but then it is a very tight league this year and no-one has gone unbeaten so far

"We're only six games into the season and no-one has won all their games so teams are taking points off each other and if someone can go on a run then that could be decisive.

"This win against Witham will give us confidence and hopefully we can take that into coming games - starting against Mistley (at Star Stile) on Saturday.

"Mistley are a side who are one place above us in the table, so it is quite a big game for both clubs.

"They won last weekend as well so I'm sure both sides will be looking to start a run of form."

Wells said he expected Shorn Bobb, Joe Morris and Charlie Latham to be missing for the visit of Mistley, but had the experienced Mark Johnson and Neal Dakin returning and Luke Robinson may step up from Halstead's seconds.

Halstead's win against Witham was built on a tight bowling performance that restricted a side capable of being destructive with the bat to 222 and then, led by a knock of 95 by Wells, they got to their target with more than two overs to spare.

"It was a really good win and a really good performance from everyone," added Wells.

"It was the kind of performance that we had been looking for.

"We put down a couple of chances early on, but I think everyone did well overall.

"At drinks in their innings, they had got to around the 100 mark and we knew that they had the capability of stretching away to get 270 or we could keep them down to 220 if we were tight, so to hold them to 222 at the lower end of that was really pleasing.

"I think it was a score that was a bit below par for that wicket so we felt confident that we could chase it down.

"Harry Pritchard made a good start in his first time batting for a while and that got us off to a solid opening, but then Joe Morris came in and batted really sensibly alongside me and Shorn Bobb came in and unleashed some late carnage.

"He hit four sixes and two fours and we got home quite comfortably in the end.

"We have missed some run chases in the past, but this time, we saw people actually stand up and deliver as we know they can."