The Liverpool Road side are one of the sides covered by so few points that a single win can move a team from the bottom to the top half of the table and Barlow reckons this close bunching will again be the pattern in the First Division.
“We’ve started quite promisingly with a couple of near misses and a couple of good wins but whoever can string some results together will be right up there and I think that will be a theme right through the season,” he said.
“Colwyn Bay lead the table and they have both the best balanced side and the best bowler in the league. But we go into every season with the hope that we may win promotion and the way things have started we’re not going to be far off.”
Ainsdale visit St Helens Town tomorrow having had the best of a hard-fought draw against Maghull last Saturday, although Barlow, who is one of the more fair-minded cricketers around, accepts that his team’s opponents hung on well and deserved their draw.
All the same, he in pleased with the shape of the team he is building in his first year at the helm.
“Myself and Mark Foster have given us a very solid opening partnership and we’ve signed Kyle Marshall, who’s been a brilliant addition to the middle order because he comes in and gets on with it,” he said. “We have different players contributing each week which is great.
“Adam Friar has been in sensational form, taking sixfers against Newton-le-Willows and Northop Hall, and every time he’s come on he has been brilliant. I’ve now got Richard Stanyon back and he’s the quickest bowler in the league, so I’ve got a nice, balanced attack.”
