HALSTEAD Cricket Club captain Josh Wells knows that it is fine margins that have held his team back in their opening pair of Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one outings.

And the skipper is hoping that they can "kick-start" their season on Saturday when Ipswich are the visitors to Star Stile.

Halstead went down to a six-wicket loss at Wivenhoe last weekend and although the score suggested a big defeat, Wells said, like in their opening-day setback against Woolpit he week before, his team had come down on the wrong side of a fine margin between success and failure.

It was a result, though, that left Halstead second-from-bottom in the fledgling table and Wells is looking for his team to bounce back when they host Ipswich - the only side below them in the standings after two games - tomorrow.

He said: "It has been a disappointing start in terms of results, but we have played two good sides and had two fairly close games so far.

"Despite what the scorecard may suggest, it was just fine margins again in the game against Wivenhoe. "There have been little things that haven't gone our way, like their overseas player being dropped when he was on five and going on to score 77. "I think we have fielded and bowled really well in both games so far, but we have fallen about 30 runs short and we'll be looking to step that side of things up.

"There are no panic buttons being pressed.

"We had a slow start last year and got stronger so we'll be looking to kick-start things against Ipswich."

Wells said he expected Joe Morris, Sam Walter and Craig Spooner to all return after being available last weekend.