Sarisbury must not let top spot slip away this time

Matt Journeaux’s side let their advantage slip away previously with some poor displays.

But they stormed back to the summit with a big win over former leaders Andover on Saturday.

Skipper Journeaux is in no mood to let that good work go to waste as they prepare to travel to Totton & Eling tomorrow.

He said: ‘We’re looking to stay at the top now we have got there.

‘They are near the bottom but we won’t underestimate them at all.

‘We know they have got a couple of matchwinners.

‘Hopefully we can do the business on the day.

‘When we were top of the league before we had three weeks of not performing very well at all.

‘It was mid season and maybe we had a bit of a false sense of where we were at the time.

‘Things started to go wrong and we started to question ourselves.

‘Now we must fight all the way to stay at the top of this league.

‘If we play like we did against Andover for the rest of the season, with the same intensity and effort, we will be in with a shout of finishing top of the league.’

Dan Goldstraw and Ryan Covey return to the Sarisbury side tomorrow and both players have the pedigree to be very influential.

Journeaux added: ‘We are a couple of players down but we have got good quality first-team cricketers coming in.

‘Dan Goldstraw is the top wicket taker in the Southern League.

‘Having him back is a big bonus for us. It’s only his second game of the season.

‘He’s partly retired now but he can play a couple more in the run-in as well, I think, which is good for us.

‘When he is in our team he puts a doubt in the mind of the opposition.

‘Ryan Covey is back and he will go in at the top of the batting order.

‘He’s got a slight niggle but hopefully he’ll get a decent score.

‘Our depth of batting isn’t as long as it is normally.

‘Usually it’s a good batting track there so hopefully we can post a healthy total if a couple of guys can get in.’

Totton & Eling are second from bottom and they need wins to avoid the drop.

‘If we do the things we should be doing we should win but it’s never quite that easy,’ added Journeaux.

‘They will be up for it, it’s make or break for them now. They might need to win three or four to stay up.’

Fifth-placed Portsmouth play at home to Bournemouth and will be looking for a good performance to build on the eight-wicket win against Liphook & Rispley last Saturday.