Saturday’s battle will be the first of two games between the clubs over the next month

Brondesbury captain James Overy is hoping Saturday can be the first of two occasions where they will beat North Middlesex in the final two months of the 2018 season.

The two clubs will face off at Harman Drive this weekend in the Middlesex County League Premier Division and do battle again later in the year in the semi-finals of the knock-out cup.

Although in recent weeks Brondesbury have dropped into the bottom two, they will take confidence from the fact they beat North Middlesex on home soil back in 2017.

Overy said: “If you look at their team, they are strong with both ball and ball, but we feel if we play to our best we can beat anyone.

“We obviously haven’t done that enough of late and we have to play North Middlesex in the knock-out cup too, so we will be seeing a lot of each other and hopefully we can get two wins.

“I think we can do that, but I guess it is all well and good talking about it, we need to actually start putting in the performances.

“The table is still very tight and Twickenham had hardly won all year and then they have won twice in a row and jumped up. We know if we do the same we will look in a more comfortable position.”

Brondesbury will go into Saturday off the back of a 137-run loss at Shepherds Bush in the Premier Division.

Anthony Wilkinson picked up 2-96 off 24 overs, but the hosts smashed 358-4 from 64 overs and then declared.

Despite 60 from Ash Rath and 33 from Jordan Bethel, Brondesbury were dismissed for 221 with only a few more overs left and sit ninth in the table after 10 games.

What gives Overy a little bit of optimism going into this weekend is the fact they will be back on home soil for the first time since June 23.

Brondesbury are unbeaten in four at Harman Drive after drawing with Twickenham last month and defeating the likes of Hornsey, Highgate and Teddington in June.

Overy added: “We are always confident and happy whenever we are at home and we are unbeaten in our last few games there.

“Hopefully we put in a good performance and beat North Middlesex like we managed to do at our place last season.

“They are a team we know well, a few of their players used to play for us, so we know it will be tough, but we always have decent games and they are always played in a good spirit.”