It may not be a “must-win” game, but Halstead Cricket Club captain Josh Wells feels today’s fixture against Mistley is an important one for his team.

Their return to the top flight of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship is proving to be tough for Halstead, with last weekend’s eight-wicket defeat at Mildenhall being their fifth in a row and leaving them third-from-bottom in the table.

Halstead’s batting once again failed to hit top gear in that game against Mildenhall, however, Wells is hoping that a stronger line-up will be in place to face the Swans.

Wells said: “The middle order collapsed again against Mildenhall. We’ve been getting off to good starts but we haven’t been building on them.

“However, we should have a bit more depth to the line-up this week.

“We were struggling a bit for players who would normally be first-team regulars last week, but we’ve got more depth and experience this week and I think we’ll be looking strong against Mistley.

“That’s good because it is a big game for us.

“If we win, then I can see us building from it and while you can’t say it’s a must-win game because it’s still early in the season, it would be nice to win as I can see Mistley being one of the sides in and around us in the table at the end of the season.”

Wells said he expected Chris Rayner, Mark Johnson and Darren Hutchison all to return for the game against Mistley at Star Stile today.