ASTLEY and Tyldesley captain James Cutt is confident his side can overcome their disappointing start to the season.

The Gin Pit side sit bottom of the Bolton Association having lost all three of their completed games.

They have also been knocked out of the Cross Cup and lost their opening group game in the new 40/40 Sunday competition.

Their difficult start has come as a bit of a surprise to the team after they had an encouraging pre-season.

Cutt believes there is enough talent in the squad to turn their fortunes around and says the immediate job is to work out a way to bring out the best in everyone to realise the team’s potential.

“We’ve got a lot of good players in the squad who are better than they are showing at the moment,” he said.

“There are some good young lads and experienced players and I would also back myself as pro to compete.

“We are just trying to find a way to pull it all together.”

A&T showed what they are capable early season when they gave Cheshire County League Premier Division side Bowden a hard game in the National Knockout.

“They play at a good level of club cricket and we took them to the wire,” said Cutt.

“That was a close game and we did well pre-season. We just haven’t got going in the Bolton Association.”

They have had a series of difficult games to start off the season, and it does not get any easier with reigning champions Atherton next up at Gin Pit on Saturday.

“It’s been a fairly tough start but we’ve played some good sides, to be fair,” he said.

“We’ve had Winton twice, Swinton Moorside and Walshaw who are all good sides.

“The fixtures have been laid out pretty tough. We always look forward to playing Atherton. We have a lot of friends there and there is a healthy rivalry once the game starts.”

On his team’s early performances on the pitch, Cutt said: “We’ve played some good cricket at times and some poor cricket at times.

“We have some good players in the side and a good mix of youth and experience.

“We’ve got young lads who have come through like our opening bowler Jordan O’Malley who’s 19 and Aaron Booth who is nearly 18 and scored runs for us last year as well.

“At the other end there are experienced players with ability like Dave Harrison. Hemant Patel got close to 500 runs last year and is looking to do the same again, and Paul Bennett is back with us.

“He grew up at the club and left to play at Middleton last year. He rejoined us in the last fortnight and we hope he has come back a better player. But it’s very much a team thing with us and all the other lads could just as easily have been picked out.

“If we put it all together we are a good side, but it’s putting it together that we need to do.

“Everything at the club is going from strength to strength, right through the junior sides.

“But we are aware we haven’t won anything for a long time.

“We think we should not be in the bottom six in the league at the end of the season.

“If we can finish in the top 10 it will be a good achievement. It would not be the worst thing that could happen if we got into that middle group at the end of the season.”