Braintree Cricket Club captain Will Jackson wants to see his team finish the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship season with a flourish to safeguard their division one status.

Having come up as division two champions last year, Braintree have enjoyed a profitable return to the top flight and know their position is in their own hands.

However, a five-wicket defeat by Halstead last weekend has reminded them that they need to now finish the job of ensuring safety in their final three games of the campaign – starting at Mistley today.

Jackson said: “It has been tight all season in the bottom half of the table, but we have three very winnable games to come and we’re now looking to bounce back emphatically against Mistley.

“We are concious that teams below us are fighting for their lives and we have to make sure that we now step up and ensure we’ll be playing division one cricket next year.

“It’s very definitely in our own hands.

“It’s all down to us and I’m confident that we’ll be fine.”

Jackson said that he expected Barry Stephens and Josh Newman to be available for the trip to Mistley, but opening batsman Dean Bass is still out.

However, the Braintree skipper knows his team have to put in a better performance than they did in getting beaten at home by Halstead last weekend.

The hosts made 253 for six, which Halstead chased down in gloomy conditions at the end for the loss of five wickets and while Jackson was delighted to see Dan Chalk record his maiden first-team century for Braintree, he felt they should have set a more testing target for their visitors.

“I think we could have done a bit more with the bat,” said the Braintree captain.

“I’d say 250 is only a par score at Braintree and you need to put 270 or 280 on the board to really make a statement.

“Halstead played well and took their chances, but we dropped one of their guys in the first over and he went on to make 70.

“They rode their luck a bit but you can’t rely on fortune and we needed to be a bit better on the day.

“One positive of the day, though, was Dan Chalk getting his maiden century.

“He has had a really good run of form and it was good to see him get that hundred.

“He had been out in the 90s before but you can really see him kicking on now.”