CORSHAM captain Ashur Morrison believes putting former champions Frocester to the sword at Station Road on Saturday is crucial to their ambitions of a successful season in Premier One.

Morrison’s men came unstuck for the second time this summer as they were defeated at early pacesetters Clevedon by five wickets on Saturday, although the skipper insists there have still been positives to take from the opening three weeks of the campaign.

This weekend’s visitors Frocester were champions in 2014 and 2015 and have not finished outside the top two since 2012 but have made a poor start to this campaign, losing their opening three games.

And Morrison reckons continuing the Gloucestershire side’s early-season woes would represent a significant advancement of their goals for the 2017 season.

“It’s a must-win game for us in many ways,’’ he said. “It looks like they are struggling a little bit and if we have any aspirations of achieving what we want to, we could do with getting a win this weekend.

“We’ve lost to Clevedon, who beat (last season’s champions) Bath and I think they will be up there and we probably should have beaten Downend (on the opening day) before getting the win against Lechlade.

“There are a lot of positives from the first three weeks.’’ Romano Esau’s 96 from 104 balls provided the backbone of Corsham’s 172-4 in a match reduced to 32 overs a side at Clevedon.

Morrison himself added a run-a-ball 31 but felt his side could probably have pushed on over the 200 mark.

Replying, knocks of 46 and 49 from Andy Solomons and Marc Lezar respectively helped Clevedon reach their target in 28 overs, Tom Foley taking 2-32.

“We made a par total for the conditions and I just don’t think we bowled tightly enough to defend that total,’’ added Morrison.

“We dropped a few chances and dropped Solomons on 10 before he went on to make over 40 and there were a few half-chances.

“Dropping to 32 overs a side probably suited us because we bat quite aggressively but with hindsight, we could have done with 200-plus.’’