GREENMOUNT have been skirting with the relegation for the last few months and now it has come to this – we are in the bottom four.

I doubt when the club voted to join the new Greater Manchester League this was quite how the chairman, members and players pictured it panning out.

For a long time now I have tipped Egerton to win the title. As our former rivals in the Bolton League, we knew how strong they were, but everyone in the dressing room felt we would be up there challenging them.

Instead, we find ourselves with a different kind of battle on our hands.

It is hard to put a finger on exactly what has gone wrong, but for one reason or another we just can’t buy a win from anywhere at the moment.

We had another one of those chats in the dressing room after Saturday’s defeat at Prestwich – we have had too many of those recently.

I know I haven’t been bowling well myself, giving away too many runs.

Danny Hornby bowled well on Saturday, but we haven’t been doing it as a unit all season. And the batsmen were unable to get anywhere near the Prestwich target of 225. We would have backed ourselves in the past to knock off those runs, but too many times this season we have been unable to do that.

You have to put it down to confidence, as we put out our strongest side.

Unsworth, who have picked up a string of good results recently, showed what you can achieve with confidence, hammering Clifton, who we play on the final day.

It’s hard to understand how it has come to this. These are difficult times, much more difficult than anyone at the club could ever have imagined.

I hope it doesn’t go down to a last-ditch final game against title chasers Clifton, but at least the lads are clear on one thing now – win both our matches this weekend, including a battle against Bury, or we will be staring relegation square in the face.