Spalding Town have been told to buck up their ideas after suffering three successive Lincs ECB Premier League defeats.
Winless Town are just four points above rock-bottom Grimsby Town after Saturday’s six-wicket home defeat against Market Rasen .
They make the trip to Lincoln Lindum, one of the three sides below them in the table, on Saturday (noon) – but skipper Rob Ambrose isn’t expecting an easy ride.
The veteran captain believes Lindum are way better than their lowly position suggests, but is more concerned by what he has seen from his own side so far this term.
Defeats to big-hitters Woodhall Spa and Bracebridge Heath didn’t concern the wicket-keeper, but losing convincingly against Rasen at Spalding Grammar School set the alarm bells ringing.
Ambrose is worried that Town’s winless run could get out of hand – and wants to see improvements all over the pitch at St Giles Avenue this weekend.
“Make no mistake about it, Lindum are way better than the league suggests,” warned the Spalding skipper. “I don’t know why, but they always start badly.
“If you look at the past few years, they’ve barely lost a game in the second half of the season. In my opinion, they are a very, very strong side – and we’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to get a result against them.
“If we don’t get that first win soon, we could be in big trouble come the mid-way point of the season. Performances have to go up a notch throughout the team.”
There have been positives for Town, most notably Warren Nel’s trademark ton against Rasen and Charlie Kearns’ impressive 4-45 in the same game.
Josh Newton also showed glimpses of finding his best form last weekend, but Ambrose wants his top order to score at a faster rate alongside talisman Nel.
Town are boosted by the return of batsman Luke Hollingworth, though.
In the bowling department, the captain admits that having opening bowler Henry Charlton unavailable has left his attack looking a little blunted. That’s not going to be helped by Kearns’ absence at Lindum, either.
“We have to score at a faster rate,” added Ambrose. “You know what you’re going to get from Warren – if he bats out the overs he’ll get a century.
“He’ll slowly accumulate runs and keep us competitive – but it’s up to the rest of us to complement him and keep the run rate up. If we can get the other lads firing and Warren keeps doing what he does, we’ll be on the right track.
“Not having Henry available has been a big blow. We have looked one fast bowler light and it has probably cost us.
“We can’t make excuses, though. We need to start picking up a few wins, or we’ll just hobble along with the odd bonus point – and before we know it we’ll be in serious trouble.”
Meanwhile, a youthful Town suffered back-to-back defeats against Market Deeping and hosts Bourne in the T20 Winkworth Cup on Monday.
Deeping posted 163-6 in the first group game at the Abbey Lawn, with David Sargeant (62 from 48) top scoring. Kearns (2-15), Dan Milgate (1-30), Roy Tilley (1-22) and Jimmy Clarke (1-7) were among the Town wicket-takers.
Spalding reached 115-6 in their reply, with Newton (36) top scoring.
Game two against favourites Bourne was much more one-sided, with the hosts smashing 233-6 batting first. Skipper Peter Morgan made 75 for a very strong Bourne side, but Spalding young gun
Jonny Manton (3-39) shone with the ball.
Only Milgate (16) and Newton (15) managed double figures in the Town reply, as they were bowled out for 62.
Ambrose, who didn’t play, added: “We saw the tournament as a bit of fun really.
“We gave some of the young lads – the likes of Jonny Manton, Pat Harrington and David Thomas – a game and they all did really well.”
