WHILE Braintree Cricket Club's 16-point lead at the summit of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division two table is a handy position for the Dolphins to be in, it is not satisfying captain Louis Cant.

Braintree will close out the first half of their season with a home game against Kelvedon & Feering on Saturday, looking to increase their advantage at the top of the standings following their six-wicket win at third-placed Copford last weekend.

Copford set Braintree a target of 241, but it wasn't sufficient to deter the visiting batsmen as they made it to 244 with just four wickets down.

With two teams set to be promoted at the end of the year, that win was important in allowing the Dolphins to put a 30-point gap between themselves and third position and they are also 16 clear of second-placed Frinton twos - one of just two teams to have beaten Braintree this summer.

However, Cant is not satisfied with that maths and is keen to further widen the gap at the top in the coming month.

He said: "It’s not a big enough lead for my liking.

"I think we would all like to see a good two-win lead over second place in the next three to four weeks, but we won’t relax until it’s a certainty.

"It's going to take perseverance and patience to get over the line.

"It’s not going to go our way for the whole season, but as long as we understand that our hard work will always eventually pay off, we’ll be OK."

It has been a solid opening half to the campaign for Braintree and their form has kept them on course to fulfil Cant's target of claiming the division two title at the end of the year.

However, the skipper knows there are areas that his team can improve on to enhance their prospects in the second half of the season.

He added: "Our fielding had not been as good as it could be, the last couple of weeks.

"We need to start holding on to our catches and putting the games to bed even sooner.

"If anything we are having a slight lull at the moment and getting away with it.

"We’ve got some key players taking a couple of weeks out to recoup, but with Barry (Stephens) coming back in and finding form, as well as Chris Leech getting into the swing of things, we are looking strong.

"A sign of a winning team is not playing to your best and still winning games."

Braintree will be looking to take another step towards their goal when they host Kelvedon & Feering at Panfield Lane on Saturday and while their bowling resources may be a bit tighter than in recent weeks, Cant is looking forward to having depth in their batting.

He said: "Josh Newman and Ben Golds are both out with injuries and with Robbie Spalding unavailable, our opening bowling options are limited.

"However, it’s allowed us to put out an extremely strong batting line up."