Division One strugglers will be missing several key players on Saturday

Upminster are keen to bounce back in Essex League Division One after suffering a thrashing against Shenfield, but captain John Curtis’ cause isn’t helped by the fact he has so many first team players missing.

Young duo Will Chuter and Frank Hazel are still on a rugby tour and unavailable to face Woodford Wells at Monkhams Lane tomorrow (Saturday).

James Aggio-Brewe was injured against Shenfield and is out and to compound it all, star player Alan Ison is suspended this weekend after a recent incident.

Curtis has been left to bemoan his unfortunate luck and said: “Alan managed to get a two-match ban after the Southend match on July 11 for showing dissent towards the umpire so he missed the Shenfield match.

“His ban couldn’t have happened at a worse time with people missing anyway! In the heat of the moment these things can happen and Alan got out and said something to the umpire.

“He will be suspended again on Saturday so not having him is obviously a big loss. Harry Jenkins has rolled his ankle playing football this week as well so he won’t be available, so it hasn’t been a great week.”

Upminster, although depleted, will hope they can put up a fight against Wells and they came close to earning a draw against them on the second weekend of the season in May.

Curtis’ team declared on 240-9 and the match seemed to be heading for a stalemate, before some fireworks from former Essex man Maurice Chambers earned the visitors success.

“We gave them a good game earlier in the season and if it wasn’t for Chambers whacking it I think we would have got a ‘winning draw’,” added Curtis.

“They chased down 240 to win with a few overs to go so we ran them close that time around. I just really need to win the toss and bat, I feel much better when we are able to get a score on the board rather than chasing.

“If we can bat first it is a decent wicket over there so hopefully we can post a good total and give them a game.”