Haverhill Cricket Club facing two key encounters in bid to move off the bottom of the table

Captain Ben Wilkins believes a batch of 'missed chances' are behind his Haverhill side's slump to the bottom of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship Division Two standings.

Last weekend's four-wicket defeat at Dunmow extended Haverhill's losing run in June after previously going down to Copford, Witham II and Kesgrave.

As a result Wilkins' men find themselves propping up the other 11 teams in the division, with the gap to safety now 13 points. And Wilkins feels that Haverhill have been masters of their own downfall on numerous occasions.

He said: "We've missed chances over the whole season and probably not done as much as we can. We've let things slip plenty of times.

“There have been some missed catches and on other occasions we've not gone on to score the runs we should have done.

"It's not one single thing or one single player, it's a collective issue."

While Haverhill have locked horns with teams in the higher echelons of the league in recent weeks, this weekend and next they take on the sides in 10th and ninth.

On Saturday they head to Braintree and that is followed by the visit of Elmstead - and Wilkins has conceded that Haverhill must win at least one of those fixtures to avoid being cut adrift at the bottom.

"You can see by looking at the table that the league is split into two," he said.

"The teams in the top half have only lost one or two games and then the ones in the bottom half are bunched together.

"We've been playing sides in the top half recently but these next games are ones we have to be looking to win.

“I'd say we must win at least one of them because we don't want the gap to grow any bigger.

"If we win at the weekend we could end up moving up to around eighth, that's how close it is.

“And if we can get the win then sometimes that can spark a run of three or four victories that would move us well away from the bottom."

Against Dunmow last weekend, opener Sam Hartshorn (64) top scored for Haverhill as he put on a first-wicket partnership worth 102 with Andrew Argent (43).

But despite Callum Lewis, Daniel Wallage and Wilkins all taking two wickets apiece, an unbeaten century from Lachlan Coyte (120 not out) got Dunmow over the line.