by JOE LEVY

COLCHESTER and East Essex face a trip down the A12 tomorrow as they look to continue their promotion push at Gidea Park and Romford.

The sides are set to meet in a Shepherd Neame Essex League first XI division one encounter (12.30pm start).

Colchester, who defeated Southend last time out, face a Gidea Park side struggling for form, having lost their last three games.

Club chairman Andrew Kennedy is wary of the opposition, though, even with a fully-fit squad at their disposal.

Kennedy said: “We beat them quite comfortably at home but I think it will be a tough one.

"They probably need to win most of their remaining games to stand a chance of going up.”

The race for promotion to the premier division is heating up with just seven games left to play.

Colchester are currently two points clear at the top of the table with 185, ahead of Fives and Heronians in second and Harold Wood on 181 points in third.

Kennedy is looking forward to the run-in and expects his side to maintain their quality in the final fixtures.

“Anyone of four or five teams are still in the mix (for promotion)," he said.

"We are playing well and have hopefully got good, strong availability for the remainder of the season.

"If we continue to put in the performances with the team and squad we've got, then we should hopefully challenge for those top two spots."

Kennedy also noted that he hoped his team would have learnt from last season, after a weak run-in saw them finish in fourth place.

“You only need two or three bad weeks and you could suddenly drop to third or fourth and miss out," he said.

"Last year, we were always second or third but ended up finishing fourth because we didn’t end well so, hopefully, we can learn from that.”

Promotion to the premier division would represent a major boost for the club, with Kennedy hoping to attract top-class players to add to the exciting young cricketers coming through the ranks.

“(Promotion) helps us with player retention and attracting other players to the club," he said.

"In the last couple of years we’ve lost players to premier division teams, so possibly they may consider coming back or we could attract others that might want to play premier division cricket.”

Promotion would also benefit the second XI, who have struggled at times this season with a lack of a consistency.

Kennedy said of the seconds: “We struggled a little bit because we had such a varied side early in the season.

“We need to string a couple of results together so to ensure we have a good finish to season.

"Then if the first team can get promoted then it will strengthen the overall playing squad and then we can push for the second team to go up next year.”

The injured Ben Stephens and Charlies Watts will return this weekend for the seconds as they face Buckhurst Hill at Castle Park.