WILL Jackson says the mood at Braintree Cricket Club is staying positive despite them going down to a fourth consecutive defeat in Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one.

The Braintree captain said no-one being able to kick on from making good starts proved costly as they were beaten by five wickets at Worlington and they will be looking to end their run of losses when they host Hadleigh on Saturday.

Braintree have been hit by injuries and players not being available in the opening weeks of the season and while Jackson insisted that was no excuse for their run, he felt they would only grow stronger as the season progressed.

He said: “I don’t want to hide behind that or make excuses as every team has times when they lose players, but ours is happening at the moment.

“We are missing key players, but we have the strength in depth and have youngsters who are coming in and impressing, so the team we are putting out should be good enough to be winning division one cricket.

“It’s tough to really put my finger on why we’re falling short at the moment, but it does need to change and we just have to stick with it. We had a similar run last year and we came good then and I know we will only get stronger when players come back.

“We will get stronger as the season progresses and I always think it’s better to be that way rather than starting strongly and falling away.

“There are still positives there and the ambition and desire in definitely still there; the camp is as unified as ever.

“There will always be peaks and troughs, but one thing that characterises Braintree is that we fight for every ball of every over and that is very much there now.

“No heads have dropped and we’re looking forward to facing Hadleigh on Saturday.

“We have to make sure we use our home advantage.

“We did that in the first game against Wivenhoe and although we lost in the end against Maldon, we batted very well in that game on our own wicket.

“We beat Hadleigh at home last year and we’re looking to get back on track now.”

Jackson said people needed to make sure they pressed home their advantage when they had it as that had cost them at Worlington.

He added: “We just didn’t get enough runs on the board.

“We lost the toss and it was a big to lose considering the weather in the days leading up to the game, but we had players get in good positions and they just weren’t able to push on.

“Myself, Dan Chalk and Barry Stephens all made it into the 30s and all got out to poor shots, but had we posted 20 to 30 more runs on that wicket then it would have been very tight.

“Worlington needed 45 overs to make the total and with another 30 runs to get and another wicket down then I think they may have struggled.

“While it was a five-wicket defeat, it was a tight game and there were positives to take as our fielding performance was markedly better and we also had Lee Fullgrabbe coming in and taking his debut first-team wicket as a 15-year-old.

“Lee did enough to retain his place this week and we should also have Rory Ainsley coming back in to add extra experience in the middle order.”