Hornchurch captain Billy Gordon is hoping they can reap the rewards of a favourable run-in down the final stretch of the Hamro Foundation Essex League Premier Division season.
Gordon's side welcome title-chasing rivals Brentwood to Harrow Lodge Park on Saturday as they look to bounce back to winning ways.
They currently sit fourth with six games left where they face Brentwood, Harold Wood, Billericay, Belhus, Chingford, and Hadleigh & Thundersley.
“We’ve got Brentwood then we’ve got a run where we should do alright looking at the fixtures, so hopefully we can have a good final stretch to the end of the season,” Gordon said.
“We will have to be at our best to beat Brentwood because they’ve got such a good team but we know on our day we’ve beaten them before and we can do it.
“Hopefully the boys will be up for it. All the top three have got to play each other again, Brentwood is the last game we have against the top teams, so if we can stay within touch you never know.”
It was a draw with Colchester on Saturday after Gordon won the toss and elected to bat and Hornchurch scored 291-6 thanks to Paul Murray (78) and Ositadinma Onwuzulike (100 not out).
In reply, Colchester managed 273-8 with good bowling efforts from Adeel Malik (4-75) and Marc Whitlock (4-109).
“It was a good game in the end, it was nice to get a decent amount of runs on the board, and we always wanted them to go for it to be fair even until the end,” Gordon added.
“I don’t really know why they stopped going for it, they probably only needed 30 off six overs, and they decided not to go for it which was a bit of a shame as apart from that it was a good match.”
The skipper was full of praise for Murray and Onwuzulike as they both hit big scores.
“Muzza has looked in good form for a while now to be fair and it was nice to see him get a 50. If he didn’t get run out I think he could have gone on to get a ton the way he was batting," he said.
“Ozzy batted superb, he got a bit lucky, but everyone needs a bit of luck and he hits the ball so clean and it was good to see him get his first team 100. It was a great day for Oz.”
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