Taylor hopes to turn tide

CRICKET:

CROMPTON skipper Carl Taylor is hoping Sunday’s surprise derby victory over Royton can be the springboard for an end-of-season revival.

It has been a dismal campaign for the Glebe Street outfit who, before last weekend’s heroics, had won only one league match.

However, the 46-runs victory over the Wood Cup finalists showed the ability is there in the team providing it can be harnessed in the right direction.

Said Taylor: “We had a long chat in the dressing room before the game saying we wanted to enjoy a good ending to the season and what better way to start than with victory over our local rivals.

“My brother Danny batted superbly for his 85 and, on this occasion, a few others chipped in with useful scores.

“You could see the confidence a score over 200 gave the team.

“On both occasions we have won this season we have batted first and scored over 200, which has given us something to defend.

“We did that well against Royton with Sami (Ullah) and Aqib (Zulfiqar) keeping it tight up front.

“Royton got behind the rate and we were able to pick up wickets as they tried to get quick runs.”

Taylor has been eyeing the rest of Crompton’s fixtures and is hopeful his team can finish their campaign in style.

He said: “We have a hard game on Saturday at Littleborough and I suppose most people would expect us to lose there, but we beat them in the Twenty20 and will give it a go.

“After that, there are games we could win, including against Ashton and Oldham.

“It would certainly be good to finish the season a lot better than we started it!”