SWINDON opener Marc Williamson has admitted that he and his fellow batsmen must step up and be counted in the second half of the Glos/Wilts Division season.

The County Ground side host Chipping Sodbury tomorrow knowing that victory over their rock-bottom guests is essential if they are to keep pace with the three teams above them in the league table.

Williamson was honest enough to admit that the men charged with the responsibility of racking up the runs this year have not held up their end of the bargain, with Swindon’s tally of 20 batting points better only than the bottom three sides in the division, and he stressed the importance of improving that stat during the run-in.

“I think it’s more to do with inconsistency with the bat. We’re probably not scoring as many runs as we should. The bowlers have been keeping us in our games and we really owe it to them to put in a good performance week in, week out,” he said.

“It’s about batting more confidently and looking to score more runs, instead of looking to survive. We should look to score runs quickly.

“I’ve been playing poorly, I think that’d be fair to say. I’ve been fairly inconsistent, with a top score of 42, and I have been putting in extra net practice and playing a lot of cricket on tour. Hopefully that will do the trick.”

Swindon’s tour to Devon has been good for team spirit, according to Williamson, who said: “There have been four or five first-teamers down here all week. It’s been good to play a lot of cricket and everyone has had a chance to bat, everyone’s got runs, Jon Sore’s got wickets which has destroyed everyone’s happiness completely. It’s been good.”

Dave Miles returns to the Swindon side this weekend, with Mike Wilson dropping into the seconds and there’s a change at wicketkeeper, with Dan Baker replacing the absent Andy Staff.