Colchester and East Essex skipper Andrew Kennedy has urged his side to make sure they don't end up regretting their poor start to the season.

The Shepherd Neame Essex League side have yet to win in their first three premier division matches of the season and Kennedy is desperate for his side not to repeat last season's awful early season form which saw them bottom of the table.

They are currently one place off the foot, and although the season is yet to mature, Kennedy is insistant Colchester find their feet now or say goodbye to title aspirations.

He told the Gazette: "It has been far from the start we were looking for, but fortunately there is time to turn it around.

"It seems to take us time to get into the groove and that is something which needs sorting because we can't keep finding form in July when top few places are sown up.

"Why we are like this I don't know. The wickets are the same for all the other teams and everyone else has availability issues with University and schools.

"We can't rely on Graham Napier to bail us out when he is not playing for Essex."

Colchester are away at Brentwood and are set to include Napier, unless he is involved in Essex's LV County Championship game at Worcestershire, which begins today.

Nick Gibbs is still absent, as are Iain McQueen and Joe Austin.

But Greg De Silva and Kennedy return from the side which was beaten by Hainault and Clayhall last weekend.

Kennedy said: "There is little wrong with the make up of our team. We have enough batsmen, seamers and Malintha Gajanayake to bowl spin. We could forever mull over who does what or who can't do certain aspects of the game, but it boils down to each player performing on the day and so far we haven't performed close enough to our best."

Colchester's second team are at home to Brentwood, hoping to follow on from their first win of the season.

They welcome back Australian Geoff Ponting.

First team: Andrew Kennedy (Captain), Tom George (wk), Omar Ahmed, Matt Austin, Greg De Silva, Ben France, Malintha Gajanayake, Andrew McGarry, Graham Napier, Julian Russell and Alex Young.

Second team: Ian Oxborrow (Captain), Adam Rutter (wk), Buddhi Attanayake, Lorrie Austin, Glen Bolton, George Brown, Gareth Fisher, Mark Gaisford, Neil Lenihan, Matt Mehen and Geoff Ponting.

Opening batsman Julian Russell has been selected for the Shepherd Neame Essex League premier division representative XI to play against the Middlesex League.