MICHAEL Coles hopes to benefit from a more relaxed environment as Wiltshire get their Minor Counties Championship season under way this weekend.

Wiltshire came agonisingly close to a maiden Minor Counties crown in 2014 before being beaten by Staffordshire in the final.

Coles’ men failed to live up to those heights last summer and finished seventh in the Western Division, with just two wins from their six matches.

Wiltshire begin their three-day campaign away at Cheshire, starting on Sunday, and captain Coles hopes lower expectations will lead to success.

“We are very much looking forward to it. We have been playing a good brand of cricket in the one-day games and we will look to try to carry that on and play in the same positive manner that we always do,” said Coles.

“We are not looking too far ahead, we just want to take each game as it comes, which is exactly what we did in 2014 when we were successful.

“Last year, I think everyone, ourselves included, put too much pressure on us considering what we had done in 2014. It took us 100-odd years to do that, so it was always going to be hard to emulate that.

“We lost a few players too, which affected us, but now we have a really good core squad of 14 or15 players or so in the county set-up that we can call, who we know will all do a good job for us.”

Cheshire were the only side to beat Wiltshire during the group stages of the 2014 season, while they have not tasted victory against that opposition in the three-day format in the last decade.

Although Cheshire only won one Championship match last season, Coles believes a stiff challenge lies in wait for his side.

“It’s a tough one to start and I really can’t recall us going to Cheshire and getting a positive result in my time playing for Wiltshire, so we know how good a side they are,” said Coles.

“They probably haven’t been playing to a level they’d want over the last 12 months or so they will be looking to put in a good performance and we have to be ready.”

Wiltshire have made three changes to the squad that triumphed at Buckinghamshire in the Knocknout Trophy last time out a fortnight ago. Patrick Greishaber, Mike Reynolds and Steve Warner all come in to play their first matches of the season for the county side.

Wiltshire team: Michael Coles (Corsham, captain), Tahir Afridi (Henley), Andy Carroll (Westbury), Patrick Greishaber (Downend, wicketkeeper), Joe King (Corsham), Jake Lintott (Clevedon), Ashur Morrison (Corsham), Uzi Qureshi (Frocester), Mike Reynolds (Trowbridge), Steve Warner (South Wilts), Ed Young (Potterne). 12th man: David Cope (Burbage & Easton Royal)