OXFORD captain Jamie Perkin has said “silly mistakes” have cost them dear in their poor start to the Home Counties Premier League Division 1 campaign.

The side are in the bottom two, having lost five of their first seven games, due mainly to batting collapses.

“We’re a very young side, who have played a lot of naive cricket and made silly mistakes,” said Perkin. “We need to cut them out.”

In last week’s six-wicket loss at Tring Park, Oxford were well-placed at lunch, but Calvin Dickinson was dismissed second ball after the interval for 88 and the side slumped to 175 all out.

“We have underperformed so far,” said Perkin. “But I feel if we get one win, we could go on a winning run.”

He will be hoping that comes tomorrow at home to old rivals Banbury, for which Freddie Simon comes in for the unavailable Connor Kilpatrick.

Their title-chase was disrupted last week, when they lost to Aston Rowant.

“We weren’t at our best,” admits captain Lloyd Sabin. “But we will need to be, against a good Oxford side."

Banbury will be boosted by the return of all-rounder Richard West, who comes in for Ed Phillips.

In another Oxfordshire derby, Aston Rowant will start favourites at home to basement club Thame Town.

Following their victory over Banbury, the hosts make two changes, with Dan Matthews and Ben Knowler coming in for the unavailable George Reid and Will Pendered.

“Although we won’t be taking Thame lightly, we’re in a good spot at present and are very confident,” said Chris Watling.

Thame skipper Michael Beard is still puzzling how to fathom how to get the better of Morrick.

“I’ve been trying to do that for ten years, without much success,” said Beard, who has named an unchanged squad.

“You’ve always got a chance in these games, but Rowant are a very good side.”

Horspath, meanwhile, travel to High Wycombe.

“This is as tough as it gets,” said Horspath skipper Will Eason. “We’ll try to stay in the game as long as we can and pick up plenty of points."

They make two changes with Will Robertson and Will Hawtin coming in for James Phillips and Robbie Eason.

Skipper Anupam Sanklecha says Shipton-under-Wychwood are working to try to solve their batting crisis.

They have struggled all season, culminating with a calamitous 35 all out in their Home Counties League Division match 2 at home to Datchet last week.

“We’ve been training hard to help the situation,” said Sanklecha.

“The batting looks decent on paper, but there’s a shortage of confidence.

“Somebody needs to come to the front with a big innings – and that might change everything.”

Shipton make just one change for tomorrow’s trip to Dinton, with Adeel Rehman replacing Ian Lewis.

There are no such problems for Great & Little Tew, who beat leaders Buckingham last week to strengthen their hold on second spot.

Skipper Harry Smith praised his bowlers, particularly left-arm spinner Joe Thomas, who returned super figures of 4-17 from 14.3 overs.

Smith said; “Because of his height, Joe gets a lot of bounce and I can only remember him being collared only twice in all the time I’ve played with him.”

Tew make one change at home to fourth-placed Chesham, with Ian Bryan returning for Charlie Gaskin.

“I don’t know much about Chesham – we’ve not played them for years,” said Smith.

TOMORROW’S LINE-UPS

Oxford (v Banbury home): Tong-Jones, Eltham, Perkin, Ayub, Nutt, Mendis, Kilpatrick, Murphy, Keat, Humphreys, Dickinson.

Banbury (v Oxford, away): from Sabin (capt), Haupt, Clarke, Adams, Rana, Hill, West, Beer, Green, Wright, Taylor.

Aston Rowant (v Thame, away): Bethell, Condon, Smith (capt), Watling, Tolson, Moriarty, Matthews, Knowler, Whatman, Harris, Morrick.

Thame Tn: (v Aston Rowant, away): from C Russell, Furness, Kanishka, Beard, Sutcliffe, Straughan, Adams, Mushtaq, Jeffcock, A Russell, Khan, Higgs, Aston.

Horspath (v High Wycombe away): Coleman, Fitzjohn, Brown, Green, Robertson, Hawtin, W Eason (capt), Cosford, Belcher, Manley, Faruq.

Shipton-under-Wychwood (v Dinton, away): Wood, Norgrove, C Miller, Cross, Sanklecha, Senior, S Harris, Rehman, Morris, Hunt, Davies.

Great & Little Tew (v Chesham, home): Smith (capt), Catling, Wyatt, White, Lloyd Brock, Slatter, Bradbeer, Shurmer, Thomas, Lawrence Brock, Bryan.