WHILE he accepts the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship crown may be out of reach this year, Witham Cricket Club captain Jake Wakelin is setting high targets for his team.

After a run where they had just one win in six division one games and slipped down the table, Witham have responded well with rousing back-to-back victories in the last two weeks.

Following a run chase where they made 290 to cross the line against Mistley, Witham won by 72-runs against Hadleigh last weekend by defending a relatively low score and now head to Coggeshall with renewed confidence on Saturday.

Wakelin acknowledges that their poor run has made it unrealistic for them to be in the title race, but he does feel their buoyancy can carry them to a finish in the upper echelon of the division table.

He said: "We know we can't win realistically the league unless there was to be a real collapse at the top, but we are still going for a top three finish.

"I don't see why that can't happen.

"We are not thinking about the league table and are just looking to play to our best, but I think we can carry on climbing because we're showing that we have players doing well in all departments.

"We went through a stage where we couldn't get a settled side but we have that now and we are moving back to where we should be.

"We feel we should be in the top half and not looking over our shoulders like we were a bit and that's good to see.

"I think we may have struggled to have defended 180 against Hadleigh had we not won the way that we did the week before when we chased down 290 against Mistley.

"The confidence would not have been there but winning breeds confidence and I'm seeing it come back now.

"When one side of the game hasn't worked, the other has and we're showing that we can fight at the top end again.

"We now have a nice run over the next couple of weeks and it's a chance to really get ourselves back up there in the table.

"Coggeshall are a decent side with good players, however, I believe if we play to our ability then we can get a third win in a row."

Wakelin said, in contrast to a few weeks ago when the team were struggling for availability, he expected some selection dilemmas for the game at Coggeshall as Carl Bragg and Leroy Facey would be able to play this weekend.

He added: "I'm thinking that we may have a bit of a headache, but it's a nice one compared to the problem we had a couple of weeks ago."