Goats could have some of their injured players back available for this weekend

Goresbrook will hope to welcome back some players from injury when they visit Stanford Le Hope in the Shepherd Neame Essex Division Three on Saturday.

A depleted Goats side held on for a draw last weekend after being second best to promotion favourites Westcliff-On-Sea for large parts of the afternoon.

Goresbrook won the toss and put the visitors into bat and though skipper Shane Barwick ended with figures of 3-51, Westcliff closed on 239-7.

Makeshift opener Jordan Calverley then produced a dogged innings for the Goats, finishing unbeaten on 49 to help them secure what was, all things considered, a fine draw.

Barwick was pleased with his side's resilience, but his main wish was for the return of some of his walking wounded in the coming weeks.

"We had four or five players missing last week and although I felt we were very competitive for large parts, anybody would miss the number of experienced players we had out, which meant that the side looked a bit unbalanced," said the captain.

"Kurt Whisker will be another couple of weeks with his hamstring injury, but we think Kane Messenger and Toby Maund will be back for Saturday and we'll have more seam bowlers available this week."