By Callum Hansey

Halstead Cricket Club coach Phil Toogood knows that it won’t take much for them to turn a run of defeats in their favour.

There was frustration as a good bowling and fielding display failed to be backed up with the bat against division one leaders Sudbury as Halstead went down to their fourth Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship defeat in a row.

Toogood felt the 39-run loss could easily have been a victory and, ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Mildenhall, he is telling the first-team players to stay confident as he knows situations like the one they find themselves in can be turned by a single innings.

He said: “The result alone is very frustrating as it was the best bowling and fielding performance so far this season and it’s the third time we have set up what should have been a comfortable win if we batted properly.

“The bowlers adapted to a very slow wicket and bowled in the best areas to contain and frustrate and cause problems for the Sudbury batsman and this was backed up by another excellent fielding display.

“Yes, our middle order batting has proved to be fragile and needs working on, however, with a little more luck and some decisions going in our favour, we could be in a much healthier position in the league.

“It goes this way sometimes and as with football and refereeing decisions it tends to even out over the course of the season.

“As long as we remain positive and continue with our very disciplined approach to each game then we will start to win games."