PHIL Harries says he is looking up the league table rather than down it after Derby AC's second successive fourth-place finish in British Athletics League Division Two.

They travelled to Kingston on Thames for the meeting after opening the campaign on their own track at Moorways in June.

It is Derby's second crack at the highest level they have ever reached in club athletics, and Harries, Derby's long-serving captain, could be forgiven for seeing survival as a realistic target.

Last time, they managed two seasons at Division Two level before being relegated in 2008 – before bouncing straight back with another promotion campaign last year.

But Harries says another promotion may not necessarily be beyond them.

"If we had everyone available for every meeting, we'd certainly be up for promotion," said Harries.

"I do realise that all the other clubs may be saying the same thing.

"But we're fourth, only five league points behind the leaders and we can still aim for the top two."

It is also the halfway point in the campaign, with two out of four meetings completed, and Harries believes the next round, in Leeds, on July 31, could be significant.

It is the only one being staged north of Derby at a time when two southern clubs, Harrow and Crawley, occupy the top two places in the league.

"The next round is in Leeds and that just might mean that it will be too far to go for some of the athletes from the southern teams," he said.

"Going to Leeds isn't a problem for us and, if that happens, and we managed to win there, we'd be right behind them going into the last meeting."

Wins were few and far between for Derby at Kingston.

There was a terrific victory for Tom Doe, on his second debut for Derby after returning as a second-claim member.

He came home 12 seconds ahead of his nearest rival in the 3000m steeplechase.

Derby doubled up in the high jump, with Melbourne teenager JJ Heath leaping 1.93m to win the A string and Francis Baker only five centimetres lower to win the B string.

It was part of a sterling all-round points harvest by decathlete Baker, who scored for the club in five events.

He was third in the pole vault, second in the 110m hurdles, fourth in the long jump and fourth in the B string javelin.

Harries was pleased with a mature race by Niall Maguire in the B 800m, as the teenager resisted his natural inclination to go off quickly, instead sitting back and then racing away from the field in the last 200m.

Another teenager, Ben Connor made a BAL debut in the 1500m, although both he and Jordan Wildrianne, who ran the B string, did not find a slow-paced race suited them.

There was another win, however, for the reliable Alex Pilcher in the B 5000m.

Once again, however, it was Derby's all-round efforts which made Harries feel good about the club's chances of prospering at this level.

"When we were in this division the last time, if we had someone missing, there was no back-up," he said.

"That's why we got relegated. The nice thing now is that we have lots of back-up – not in all events, but in most of them."

Ironically, it is the veteran captain's own event, the 400m hurdles, which is one of the remaining problems, with 44-year-old Harries having to run the A race, coming in sixth, while Lewis Stead was sixth in the B race.