HALSTEAD Cricket Club's players are not getting carried away by their lofty berth in the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship and skipper Josh Wells insists they are staying focused on the job in hand.

An 83-run win against Mistley last weekend kept Halstead hot on the heels of the top two in division one and they are part of a three-team group that has started to put distance between themselves and the chasing pack.

However, Well insists that it is too early for his side to be thinking of a title battle and he wants them to just concentrate on the next game in front of them - starting at Hadleigh on Saturday.

He said: "There are only a couple of wins between us at the top of the table and we have to keep our focus on trying to win every game.

"In truth, we just have to take it game by game.

"There is no point in having targets as there is still a long way to go, but if we keep going as we have been, I can see no reason why we can't keep ourselves in the mix.

"We're looking forward to going to Hadleigh on Saturday as we always seem to have good games against them."

Wells said he expected Neal Dakin to step up into the first team for the trip to Hadleigh in place of Josh Ruthven, while Craig Spooner is set to be unavailable and will be replaced by Chris Rayner, who took five wickets for Halstead's seconds last week.

Spooner will be a loss after playing an integral part in Halstead's win against Mistley.

He hit 62 in a pivotal 98-run partnership Charlie Douglas-Hughes, who made an unbeaten 89, as Halstead made 275 for seven against the Swans.

Scores also came from Chris Huntington, who made 42 at almost a run-a-ball, and Joe Morris, who took just 36 balls for his 46 as Mistley were given a testing target to chase.

Morris and Wells then took three wickets each as Mistley were bowled out for 192.

The Halstead skipper said: "We played well again.

"We were 60-odd for four, but we then got ourselves into a really good place as Charlie batted very sensibly throughout and Craig supported him before Joe came in and did well at the end.

"We've always known that we bat all the way down the order and that shows with Joe getting a good score coming in at number nine and he helped us take the game away from Mistley.

"We then always felt comfortable that, if we bowled well, we could defend it even though we knew Mistley have some very good players in their side."