ASTON Rowant captain Josh Smith is urging his players to step up to the plate ahead of their derby match at home to Thame Town tomorrow.

Rowant sit bottom of Division 2 in the Home Counties Premier League after four games and suffered a six-wicket defeat at Gerrards Cross last weekend.

Although their league position came about via a 20-point deduction after incorrectly registering Miles Hammond for their opening game, Smith is calling for more.

He said: “It was not particularly good last week.

“We need to start winning games, we need something to change.

“People need to step up, that is exactly what we need people to do.”

Rowant make three changes, with Gordon Harris, Hendrick Robyns and Steven Richards replace Dominic Whatman, Richard Cook and Tom Condon.

Captain Mike Higgs hopes Thame can put in an improved performance following a narrow four-run loss to Cookham Dean six days ago.

Higgs and Will Taylor return to the side for Harry Thomas and Will Simpson.

“To go so close last week and not win made it more disappointing, but our focus is to get back to putting in a really good performance,” said skipper Higgs.

An unchanged Horspath visit Cookham with skipper Will Eason hailing the team effort which has been key to their unbeaten start to the season.

A seven-wicket win over Shipton-under-Wychwood last week kept them level with Buckingham Town at the top of the table.

Eason said: “People have performed every week and that’s probably the most pleasing thing.

“Everyone is contributing to help the side get a win and put in a winning performance.”

John Barrett has described Oxford’s clash at Amersham as verging on a must-win as they look to arrest a run of two games without a victory.

Oxford lost by two wickets at home to Buckingham last weekend after rain forced a draw with rivals Aston Rowant seven days previously.

While Barrett admitted there were plenty of positives to take from Saturday, he is urging his side to get back to form.

“With our side we fancy our chances against anyone,” said the Oxford skipper, who adds Ian Crosby to a squad of 12.

“We want to get our season up and running and it is almost a must win after the last two games.”

Shipton are unchanged as they host Datchet.

The west Oxfordshire outfit lost to Horspath last week, but captain Charlie Brain takes heart from the win against Rowant in the Davidstow Village Cup a day later.

He said: “We had a chat after the Horspath game about what was going wrong, what we needed to start doing and it was put into practice on Sunday.”

TOMORROW’S TEAMS

Aston Rowant (v Thame Tn, home): Hammond, Jewell, Watling, Smith, Morrick, Muttitt, Bethell, Barras, Harris, Robyns, Richards.

Thame Tn (v Aston Rowant, away): Sutcliffe, MacDonald, Beard, Garg, Mushtaq, Patey, Phippen, Lachlan, Rooney, Higgs, Taylor.

Horspath (v Cookham Dean, away): Ward, Raja, Phillips, R Eason, Ali, Belcher, Davies, W Eason, Faruk, Foster, Price.

Oxford (v Amersham, away): from Alam, Perera, Stephens, Munsey, Barrett, Fairhead, Mendis, Beer, Eltham, Fallah, Khalid, Crosby.

Shipton-under-Wychwood (v Datchet, home): Hemming, Barrett, Hole, Dickinson, C Miller, Wood, Lewis, Seacole, Cross, Brain, S Miller.