Wakelin wants Witham to finish with a flourish

Witham finished second in division one in 2015 and are currently third with three games left to play with second spot still in their sights.

Wakelin admits that his team have been too inconsistent this year to have really challenged for the top spot, but following last weekend’s six-wicket win against second-placed Wivenhoe, he knows a second consecutive top-two finish is still possible.

They are now 33 points behind the side they beat last week, however, they now face another test today as they host current leaders Mildenhall at The Park.

Wakelin said: “It was a good result against Wivenhoe after the week before when it was a bit rubbish against Worlington.

“The boys were disappointed with that previous performance and the way they’d played and we wanted to right the wrong of that one.

“We certainly did that against Wivenhoe and I really couldn’t have asked for anything more from them.

“We can’t win the league, but it was a performance and result that showed that we are still one of the best sides in the league.

“We’ve had a couple of rocky results but that’s cricket and we’re now focused on finishing as high as we can.

“I don’t think we’ve been consistent enough to finish top and we’ve lost some silly games against sides who we know we shouldn’t have lost to this year.

“So unfortunately we can’t win the league but the boys want to finish strongly and we can get that second spot.

“Having finished second last year and second or third this year will mean we’ve had two very successful years and shows we are in the top two or three sides in the division.

“Mildenhall will be difficult as they are clear at the top and obviously very strong but we will be looking for another good result.”

Wakelin said he expected to have good availability for the game against Mildenhall so it would be a strong Witham side that would be facing the leaders.