COLCHESTER and East Essex captain Andrew Kennedy believes beating Brentwood in the Shepherd Neame Essex League tomorrow would give them a psychological lift ahead of the cup game between the two sides.

The two clubs face each other on successive days at Brentwood’s Old County Ground, with their premier division clash followed hot on the heels by their ECB National Club Championship fixture on Sunday.

Colchester are still looking for their first league win of the season and Kennedy hopes that will come at Brentwood tomorrow, to give them a timely boost ahead of the cup game against their same opponents.

Kennedy said: “Brentwood are always a very good side and have been up and around the top of the league for the last five or six seasons.

“We need to get a positive result and if we win the league game, it will give us a nice psychological boost going into the National Cup match against them on the Sunday.”

Colchester came close to securing their first league win of the season at Buckhurst Hill last weekend, with the match ending in a draw.

“We played much better and had we held our catches, we could have easily won the game,” said Kennedy.

“We were closing in on victory but unfortunately, we didn’t have long to bowl at their last two or three batsmen.

“But we batted much better than we have been and it wasn’t a great wicket.

“Julian Russell and Tom Ullyott both batted very well and with the pitch being the way it was, it was more like they made 100.

“The outfield was slow so they were big scores in the context of the game.

“We went into lunch in a good position and should have hung around and made more of it but 234 was still a huge score on that pitch.

“It was nice to get a more positive result against them.”

Kennedy will miss both matches this weekend so Tom Ullyott will skipper Colchester in the league fixture against Brentwood.

Kiwi Darren Eckford and Australian opener Julian Russell are also out of both games, as is Ollie Bocking.

But bowler Greg Stephens is available again after missing the Buckhurst Hill draw and Harry Bush is set to return for the National Cup clash.