HADLEIGH & Thundersley suffered a third defeat in succession, losing by nine wickets against Ilford.

The setback saw Hadleigh slip to second from bottom in the Premier Division standings.

But Sam Handley - who top scored with 70 - is confident Hadleigh will turn things around.

“We are a better side than how we are playing at the moment and I’m positive we will turn things around,” said Handley.

“On a personal level it’s obviously nice to contribute to the team with runs, however it means nothing as we have lost the game.

“We have to move on now to next week and it doesn’t get any easier as Wanstead are the best team in the country having won the nationals last year.

“However we can beat any team on our day, and we have to put this bad start behind us because I do believe we have more than enough to win games in this division.”

Hadleigh were bowled out for 139 with skipper Richard Revell the second highest scorer with 34.

In reply, Ilford reached the required total for the loss of just one wicket.

And Handley felt Hadleigh misread the conditions early on.

“I think we misread the pitch early on and as a team we expected the pitch to get worse throughout the game instead it did the opposite,” said Handley.

“It’s always going to be a struggle when you lose wickets early on in the game.

“But to be fair we battled back well as a side to get up to 139 from where we were.

“There were some important knocks for Rich Revell and a good supporting role from Haider Zaidi protecting his wicket for a lengthy amount of time.

“But Ilford came out and showed us how to bat on our own pitch and to be fair they batted very well.”