Hornchurch captain Billy Gordon feels the opening month of the Hamro Foundation Essex League season could make or break their season as they face all of the title favourites in that period.
The Harrow Lodge-based outfit make the trip to Overton Drive on Saturday to face reigning champions Wanstead & Snaresbrook in the Premier Division season opener.
They then face both Chelmsford and Brentwood in the month of May as well as Colchester & East Essex.
“They’re always a brilliant side, so we’ll have to be on our game 100 per cent if we want to beat them, especially at their place,” Gordon said of Wanstead.
“It’s a tough start, we got some tough fixtures early on, so we need to be on it straight away if we want any chance of winning the league this year.
“If you can get a few good early results against the top sides then we stand in good stead to carry on and have a good season.
“It should make us a bit more up for it having these type of fixtures right away.”
Hornchurch have bolstered their team as they’ve brought back overseas Muhammad Irfan and added bowler Adeel Malik.
“We’ve got Irfan back, our overseas, which is always a plus and we’ve got a new addition in Adeel Malik," added Gordon.
“After seeing him bowl on Saturday, he’s going to be an excellent addition.”
Gordon’s side have played a few friendlies and progressed into the next round of the Dukes Essex League Cup with a seven-wicket victory over local rivals Upminster last weekend.
“It’s good, we got a couple of early friendlies in mid-April, which helped as we haven’t been able to do any indoor training or anything," said Gordon.
“We were a bit rusty to be honest, but we’re starting to get back into it now, and looking forward to the season ahead.
“We’ve got a good side on paper, so if we can perform we should be there or thereabouts hopefully.”
Hornchurch dismissed Alan Ison’s Upminster for 156 before reaching their target with time to spare, as Gordon and Merv Westfield shared an unbroken stand.
“It was good, we bowled well to be fair, they had a couple of batsmen young guys at the top that did well, but we brought it back well," said Gordon.
“We then chased it down relatively comfortably in the end.”
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