Essex's Mark Pettini (PA)

“It is not the losses that are the biggest disappointment, but the manner”

This season is proving to be rather frustrating. Over the opening weeks this frustration resonated in the fact that consistent downpours caused so much game time to be lost. Since then the weather has cleared and Essex have struggled to find that winning formula.

With only one win in the County Championship and a succession of stalemates and losses, our thoughts turned to the 40-Over format. Essex have always been a strong 40-Over side, but seem to have forgotten that this season losing every game so far!

It is not the losses that are the biggest disappointment, but the manner in which Essex have lost, being completey outplayed in every game.

The recent dire loss against the Netherlands has left many an Eagle fan disappointed, with the T20 tournament the ONLY competition where Essex could seemingly make a major contribution this year.

But where has this season gone wrong? There have been a number of factors which have contributed to this frustrating season. Individually these factors might not effect a team that much, but all together can have destructive effects.

Firstly, Essex’s biggest struggle has been with their batting and the lack of runs from the top order. Apart from (this blogger’s favourite batsmen) Mark Pettini scoring valuable 50’s to give the Essex scorecards some degree of respectability, the others have really struggled.

Godleman scored a great 100 at the start of the year but since then has found himself playing second XI cricket, where he still has scored several 100’s.

Petersen, Westley, Wheater, Foakes, Foster & co. have all scored runs but annoyingly they seem to all score runs or are dismissed cheaply in the same game!

Never before as the “one brings two” cliche been truer than with an Essex batting line-up.

Essex did suffer with the IPL, losing two of their key players in Shah and Tendo. Shah’s team were eliminated early so he has been back with the Eagles for a few weeks now, plus he scored runs in the IPL so should be able to transfer that form. Ryan Ten Doeschate’s team, the brilliantly named Kolkata Knight Riders, won the competition meaning Tendo is not even back yet! The most frustrating part of that is that Tendo didn’t even play a game for the KKR!

Essex have also been unlucky with injuries losing two of their most experienced genuine all-rounders in Graham Napier and Tim Phillips for most of this season so far.

However, the optimism is still powering through, with Napier and Phillips seemingly fully fit again combined with a returning Tendo, Essex’s season can only get better. With the T20 tournament about to begin, Eagles fans should nosily support their team as much as possible for the rest of the season!

This passionate support should start on Bank Holiday Monday during the CB40 game against Gloucestershire, I’ll be there cheering the lads along, will you?