WES Griffiths believes just one big performance will kick-start Halesowen CC’s season.

The captain is hoping it will come at Old Elizabethans this Saturday, after a tough few weeks which have seen the Seth Somers Park outfit fall off the pace in Birmingham League Division Two.

Last weekend’s five-wicket defeat at Brewood left them eighth in the table but Griffiths believes it is a lack of form — rather than a lack of skill — which is holding his side back.

He said: “We still have an awful lot of belief in our side and we believe we have under-performed so far.

“I don’t think it’s the case that we aren’t good enough.

“We have managed to scrape a couple of good results but the fact is we have not been anywhere near our best.

“I feel it’s just going to take one big performance to turn things around and I’m hopeful we can get it this Saturday.

“We need to string a few results together.”

The defeat at Brewood centred around a below-par batting performance in which Hales, batting first, only managed a total of 163.

Opener Hassan Quami was trapped lbw for a fifth ball duck and though Mohammad Shauib (28) and Asif Khan (50) helped the visitors recover to 101-2, they then collapsed with only Phil Croft (20) offering any resistance.

Halesowen battled hard with the ball but were undone by a fine innings of 93 not out from Brewood opener Chris Pearce. Croft picked up three wickets but the hosts got home in just under 31 overs.

Griffiths added: “Hassan and Asif gave us a decent platform with the bat but we didn’t follow it through and in the end we were probably a good 50 runs short.

“If we had set them 220 I think it would have been a different game.

“We showed a lot of fight with the ball which was really encouraging but ultimately we did not play well enough. We now need to pick ourselves up as we have some big fixtures coming up.

“It’s a really strange league this year and we are by no means out of it. A couple of wins can put us right back in the mix.”