“As everyone knows we have lost several players in the off season, and couple this with the loss of coach Brangman who played a very important part, not only off the field but on it as well, it hasn’t been the best start to the new season,” said Williams.“Add to this the unavailability of several key players so far this season . . . all these things have impacted our pre-season build-up. Our training sessions are only now going to start picking up.“If it weren’t for some of the older players having made themselves available to play this season although they have been retired for the last three to five seasons and some of our Under-14 players coming out, we faced a real possibility of folding.“Thankfully we have managed to field a team in the early part of the season even if it has been just barely.“What’s important to note now is that the club and the players are as committed as ever to getting this right on the pitch as our numbers are growing. We anticipate that once we put in the hard work in training to get rid of the rust we can turn this very shaky start to the season around.“I am not downplaying the recent results as they have been abysmal, giving up 400 then being dismissed for 82, 74 all out then 37 all out certainly rings enormous alarms, and we have to roll up our sleeves and put in some hard work.“Our last three games were in cup competitions, so to date we still have played just one Premier League game. This can only serve to help us as we strive to play the type of cricket worthy of Devonshire Rec’s history. Premier survival has not been given up by any means.”The club lost the services of player/coach Ricardo Brangman sr after the first game of the season, and have been reeling since then.During his coaching tenure at the Den, Brangman guided Devonshire to Central Counties, First Division 50-Over and Two-Day League glory.He had considered resigning as Devonshire’s coach at the end of last season but eventually had a change of heart after being asked to stay on.Brangman echoed Williams’ sentiments and is also positive about the remainder of the season.“We haven’t played badly for the most part,” said Brangman. “People would look at Saturday and say that we are going down but that was one game and in this game anything can happen from one week to the other.“After the 37 we scored 158 against Cleveland on Sunday, so it’s just a matter of getting a few things tuned in and we should be OK for the remainder of the season.”