STAND captain Gary Penchion has targeted a top-five finish after an impressive run of form which has seen the Hamilton Road men win four matches on the bounce.

The Whitefield side, who sit seventh in the Lancashire County League table, make the short journey to local rivals and in-form second-place side Prestwich on Saturday for what promises to be a mouth-watering clash.

It would take a miraculous turnaround in the second half of the cricket season for Stand to gatecrash the Heys Road title-chase, but skipper Penchion reckons his men can at least qualify for next season’s prestigious Lancashire Knockout trophy.

“We’re going all right at the moment,” said Penchion following Stand’s 32-run win at home to Woodbank.

“We started off okay, but we went through a period when we couldn’t get a settled team.

“But we’ve got our players back and I see no reason why we can’t get into the top five.

“Our top players Stuart Catterall, Chris Holt, Scott Butterworth and Jimmy Cutt are all having a big influence for us, but we must now try to keep it going until the end of the season in order to put pressure on the teams above us.”

Penchion bats down the order and has been under less pressure recently with his side winning many of their games with wickets to spare.

It was a different story at the SCG on Saturday, however, with Stand and Woodbank each restricted to 37 overs as a result of a weather-induced late start.

Woodbank pro Steve Dearden and spinner Nick Kennedy reduced the hosts to 11-3 before Stuart Catterall rescued the situation.

Catterall controlled the innings until, with overs running out, he went through the gears to reach another fine half century from 83 balls and help his side to 137-8.

In reply, Brett Collins played positively on a difficult surface and he was the mainstay of the Woodbank innings before falling for 53, lbw to Butterworth.

Butterworth then tempted danger man Dearden (2) into an off drive, which went like a bullet to Penchion, who took a good catch falling backwards at mid off.

Following the dismissal of Collins, it was left to spin twins Jimmy Cutt and man-of-the-match Catterall to rip through the lower order and guarantee the win as the visitors crumbled to 105-9.