RADCLIFFE captain Michael Farley has labelled Saturday’s away game at Austerlands “must win”.

Radcliffe are bottom of the Greater Manchester League Division Two B after four defeats and an abandoned game from the opening five matches.

Oldham side Austerlands are three places and eight points above them, and Farley has no doubts about the importance of the game to Radcliffe’s hopes of staying up after last season’s promotion.

“It’s a must-win game,” said Farley.

“It’s the biggest game of the season so far for us because of how much is riding on it.

“We need to get a win on the board and Saturday would be the perfect time to do it.”

The skipper believes they will have every chance if they emulate the performance they put in to beat Radcliffe rivals ELPM at home in the T20 competition on Friday night in front of a good crowd of around 150 people.

“It was the best we’ve played for 12 months,” said Farley whose side welcome Elton tomorrow night in their second T20 match.

“We won it with the bowling and fielding. It was a really good night, all 22 players stayed and had a drink together after the match and it was great to see so many people on the ground.

“There were so many new people I’ve never seen before who came to watch – it was a breath of fresh air.

“We got well beaten on Saturday by Uppermill but they are the best team in the league by far.”

ELPM also lost in the league last weekend, going down at home to Littleborough Lakeside in Division Two A to leave them fifth bottom of the table, level on points with the bottom club.

But they got a win on Sunday when they beat Edenfield in the cup.

They travel to Glossop 2nds tomorrow and captain Paul Hewart said of the defeat to Radcliffe: “They won the toss and put us in to bat and 4-1 soon became 24-4.

“We managed to rally a bit with Louis Birmingham getting 33 and we batted the overs out for a very below par 87-8.

“I believe 120-plus would have easily been enough, but fair play to Radcliffe, they bowled tight and we didn’t bat as we can.

“Radcliffe were wobbling at 81-7 but they stuck at it and knocked it off finishing on 90-8.

“Matty Partington finished with 2-19 and Jack Crompton 2-17.

“On Saturday the sun was shining down at Croft Lane on what was a very batter-friendly wicket, and we just lost out to Littleborough Lakeside with a total of 524 runs being scored.

“The toss was important and I lost it again! Usman Malik got a very nice 89 and didn’t look in too much trouble until he finally fell to Adam Sajewicz.

“Wickets were spread through the team with Birmingham ending with very respectable figures of 4-50, Adam Saj finishing with 1-47, me 3-65 and Partington 2-31.

“Littleborough Lakeside finally finished on 273ao.

“The Millers set off well with an opening partnership of 49, a few quick wickets fell and we soon became 56-3 then 87-4 until a partnership of 130 between Will Turnbull and Ian Wade brought us right back into the game.

“The wicket of Wade (78 off 54 balls) made it another squeaky bum time and 217-5 eventually became 251ao with a well-batted 55 from Will Turnbull.

“The one real positive we can take from the game is batting virtually all our 50 overs and on another day we would have won.

“Sunday’s cup game against Edenfield was another scorcher and, thankfully, I won a toss on another rock-hard deck.

“After another steady start 29-1 soon became 69-5 with the previous day’s run-scorers not really troubling the score board.

“But then another tremendous partnership of 140 between Matthew Smalley and Birmingham, who ended on 65 and 80, respectively, put us right into the game.

“A couple of little cameos at the end from Dan McCaffrey (17)and Steven Keyworth (15) got us up to a very respectable 286-8.

“A great start removing Edenfield’s pro Gallagher for nought after some great bowling by Birmingham and a very smart catch from the skipper set the Millers off.

“Birmingham and Smalley bowled very sharp on a very hard deck but Edenfield’s captain stuck around for a good 102.

“Their second wicket fell at 55 but a steady stand of 121 brought them right back into the game.

“ELPM bowled steadily and rotated the bowling using six bowlers.

“Barnes eventually got bowled by Smalley for 102, wickets fell steadily and Birmingham came back and finished with 5-39, Smalley 1-54, me 2-60 and Sajewicz 2-43.

“We eventually bowled Edenfield out for 259, another mammoth 545 runs scored at Croft Lane. Over 1,000 runs in a weekend – that’s proper cricket.

“What was really pleasing was batting all 50 overs and different guys getting the runs.

“All the top order now have had a 50 or more so we are starting to feel a little more confident as we head into this weekends trip to Glossop.

“One thing the GMCL has done is allow us to play teams like Edenfield on a regular basis.

“Four years ago we would have been massive underdogs for a game like this but now we aren’t.”