OXTON suffered relegation agony last year - but experienced a different kind of agony this season. Their consistency throughout pointed to a quickfire return to the top flight. But it wasn’t to be as a loss at champions Macclesfield and a final day draw at Upton resulted in the Wirral side just missing out on promotion from The Right Move Abroad Cheshire County League Division One. Oxton skipper Andy Birley admitted: “We are very disappointed because we had always said that the plan was to go back up. “But we were not disappointed the way we have played this season. “At the end of last season there was a lot of unrest at the club following relegation. But we have played well this season, there’s a great spirit in the team and club, and that’s a massive transformation. “We went so close but failed at the final hurdle.” The irony of losing four points early season for slow over rates was not lost on Birley or his team, who finished third, just three points behind Heaton Mersey. “We joked at the time that it would be terrible if that cost us from going up. But, in the end, it did.” Birley will lead the side again in 2008, but before that would like to strengthen in certain areas. “We have suffered without a spinner this season due to injury. We don’t need to make significant changes, but our attack was one-dimensional and if we could find another spinner it would take the pressure off the seam bowlers. “We missed Mark Rowlands’ slow bowling as he only returned from injury for the final game. Mark bats four and scores a lot of runs, so he could plug a couple of gaps.” Birley, who acknowledged that the club’s overseas player, young Aussie pace bowler Dean Treuer, did not come up to expectations, admits there has been plenty to learn from this year’s campaign. He added: “We started the season very slowly, so that proved costly. We must look to start in 2008 the way we played for most of this season.” | 
