WOODBANK captain Anthony Harris is confident his young side will be a force once they have had time to gel as a team.

The skipper fell just four runs short of a half century in the five-wicket defeat at leaders Prestwich on Saturday, and Harris believes it is only a matter of time before his ninth-placed side make their presence felt in the Lancashire County League.

"We just haven't got together as a team yet," he said.

"We've either batted really well or bowled well, but we haven't done it as a unit yet. That is something we need to put right."

Harris, who came through the junior ranks at Walshaw is in his first season at The Kenyons having kept wicket at Haslington last season, and he is confident that once youngsters like Kieran Grundy, Ryan Barker, Dom Gowers and Ryan Stringer establish themselves in the side, Woodbank will begin to flourish.

"We've got several young players coming through this season but once we bring them on I'm confident we will be winning more matches that we lose," he said.

Steve Dearden starred with the bat and ball but despite posting a big score of 246 at Heys Road, Woodbank fell to defeat.

Dearden hit 86 for the visitors and captain Harris and Mark Stringer chipped in with 46 and 44 respectively as table-toppers Prestwich struggled with the ball.

Captain Andy Bradley was the only bowler to many any inroads in the Woodbank innings, helping himself to 4-49 from his 18 overs.

However opener Ryan Stanbury notched up 89 and Sam Holden, in at number four, smashed his way to 91 not out to lead Prestwich to victory in a revised rain-reduced target.

"We were disappointed that we didn't win it," said Harris.

"We couldn't do too much more with the bat.

"But their South African opener also batted really well. Prestwich set themselves a platform and really we couldn't do much to stop them."