Hornchurch captain Billy Gordon is sending out a rallying call for his side to drastically improve and earn their place in the team for next season.
Gordon and his men will make the trip to Beehive Lane to take on Chelmsford on Saturday as they head into the final three fixtures of the shorteneded Shepherd Neame Essex League Premier League season.
The skipper believes his side haven’t been good enough so far this term and is eager to finish strong before trying to strengthen his squad in the winter.
“We’ve got to somehow improve and hopefully strengthen for next year, permitting it’s going to be a full season hopefully,” Gordon said.
“We still want to try finishing as strong as we can, build some confidence, and we’ve still got the T20 cup, so hopefully we can have a good run in that.
“People have got to start playing for their places as I think the boys have got too complacent.”
They suffered a 64-run defeat to title challenging Brentwood at the weekend after their opponents won the toss, elected to bat and posted 254-4 as Will Buttleman (122) and Tom Oakley (60) shone.
Hornchurch could only muster 190-8 in reply, despite reasonable efforts from Jamie Sorrell (38), Ronnie Saunders (35), and Merv Westfield (40).
“I wasn’t too happy really, I wasn’t happy with the fielding again and had a discussion with the boys halfway through the game when we came off,” added Gordon.
“We gave away 30-40 runs and you look at the scorecard after, it could have been a different game if it was that bit closer, and I think we showed Saturday that at the moment Brentwood are a class above.
“You look at their outfit then you look at ours and you can see the difference in levels at the moment.”
Gordon added: “It was nice to see Merv get a cameo in, he batted really well, Ronnie and Sorrell started off really well for the boys but when you’re chasing that run rate against a quality side it’s always difficult to keep that up when you’ve given them so many runs.
“The batting hasn’t been too bad, it’s more the bowling and the fielding, whereas before it’s always been the other way round.
“We have to look at ourselves for next year, strengthen and improve.”
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