CONSIGNED to a watching brief only, Tonge captain Danny Delvard is happy to kick back and let his stand-in skipper take charge tomorrow.

A bout of fluid on the knee means Delvard is ruled out of action, at least for this weekend, leaving the Castle Hill side in the hands of vice-captain Alex Rodzoch.

And he insists that is not a problem as they head for Little Hulton, looking to banish the memories of last week’s defeat and get their Association Division season back on track.

“I’m disappointed to be out injured because it’s not all that often we get to play in such sunshine,” he said. “We need to regroup after last week, when we lost at Golborne, and put right the wrongs from that game.

“It was one we had targeted for a win, we identified it as a game where we could be the hunters, rather than the hunted.

“And, looking ahead to Little Hulton, it’s a game both teams need to win if they want to try to keep up with the pace-setters, so it’s a critical game, even at this early stage.

“I’ve got every confidence in Alex to lead the team at Little Hulton, he’s very capable, he’s got supreme cricketing talent and all he needs to do is show that on a regular basis.”

Delvard’s team had got the season under way with victory over Adlington in the Peter Stafford Trophy and progress in the ECB Knockout Cup, albeit by default, thanks to Littleborough conceding their tie.

But he admits their league performances since then have been somewhat patchy, including those of their professional, Tilaksha Malshan. However, if they can play to something like their best on a more consistent basis, Delvard feels they have the ability to string some victories together.

“I’m of an age where I can win well and lose gracefully,” he added. “Everyone wants to win every game and we’re no different, but, to be honest, what’s more important to me is the culture and behaviour within our club.

“When I’ve been trying to persuade players to come to Tonge I’m honest and tell them ‘we’re not an especially attractive club, we’re not fashionable, but what we are is quite stable financially and we’ve got a really good crop of players’. And the best way to become an attractive proposition is to win games.

“We’re not clicking at this moment in time, we’ve got a very good bowling attack and while we do have individual qualities in our batsmen, we’ve not quite been joining up the dots as of yet, we’ve been letting ourselves down.

“We just need three or four of the lads to consolidate around whoever is playing well at any one time, especially if Tilly [Malshan] fails, then we have to rally around him and produce some winning performances.

“Like us all, Tilly has had a mixed start, he got a very good century and six wickets against Heaton, he didn’t have much to do against Blackrod because we were chasing a small target, then he went fishing for one against Golborne and was out for three.

“We’ve got others who can do a job though, such as Connor Ward, who is back to full fitness and bowling well, and Alex [Rodzoch] and Sam Hardman are playing well too.

“We’re not being rolled over by anyone, we’ve got good young players and I believe we’re starting to create something special.”

Fixtures

Tomorrow

Association Division: Adlington v Eagley, Astley Bridge v Heaton, Darcy Lever v Golborne, Little Hulton v Tonge, Little Lever v Blackrod.