Witham Hockey Club men’s captain Richard Marshall feels they are now much better placed to deal with playing in East League division two than the last time they took the step up.

Marshall’s team head into the new campaign as reigning division three south east champions after a hugely successful 2013/14 season and they are hoping for further progress in division two south this year.

Their season is due to start with a trip to Letchworth seconds on Saturday and Marshall believes Witham will be a stronger force than the last time they were at that level two years ago.

He said: “We’ve just finished pre-season and everything has been going really well.

“We played Colchester firsts last week in a friendly and they play in the league above us, but we beat them so that’s encouraging.

“We’ve got three or four new players and we have a nice depth to the squad this year.

“Last year we had 12 or 13 players and now it’s 15 or 16 so there’s good competition for places and you can see that in the fitness of players.

“You may normally see fitness levels drop over the summer, but everyone has been working on the fitness because they know their places may be threatened.

“The aim just has to be to build on what we achieved last year."

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