Somerset face another crucial match at the County Ground in Taunton today when they take on Warwickshire in the county championship, the outcome of which could well seal their First Division fate next season.

Currently Somerset are in eighth place in the table, with only Yorkshire below them, and have just five games remaining. Before they lost to Kent at Canterbury last weekend coach Kevin Shine set them the target of winning three of their remaining matches to stay up.

Since then other results have not gone in their favour, and the Cidermen face Warwickshire under no illusions as to just how important the outcome of the match is.

Wicket-keeper batsman Rob Turner, who has found himself batting in several crucial situations recently told me last night: "Every game is important to us now and tomorrow is a major match. We are fighting hard to stay up in the county championship, but unfortunately we just can't seem to get the results."

This year's beneficiary continued: "If we can stay up in the championship and win a major one-day trophy then we will have done well this season. Tomorrow is a big game for us and everybody will be up for it."

All rounder Mike Burns, who has captained the side on several occasions this season told me: "This is another game that we could do with winning. We all still think that we can stay up in the championship and will be going out there to do our best."

He continued: "We've tried our hardest all season but things just haven't gone our way much of the time. Hopefully we will all pull together and get a result, and if we don't win then we want a high scoring draw from it."

Peter Bowler told me: "This game is incredibly important for us. There are five teams in the bottom half of the table, and at the end three will be relegated and we don't want to be one of them."

The veteran batsman continued: "Our championship cricket this season has been pretty good this season, and at the half way mark we felt that we were very unlucky not to near the top, after the weather prevented us winning when we were in the box seat. Since then we had a poor result against Sussex, but the last couple of games have been fairly close."

He concluded: "We have still got games to play and opportunities to keep ourselves in the first division."

Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "We are all looking forward to the game against Warwickshire, which is hugely important for us. With five games left that means one hundred points up for grabs. We want a result to help us to get clear of the other sides down at the bottom of the table and climb towards safety and a place in the top division next season."

Steffan Jones misses the match because he is having a scan on his ankle injury, and Andrew Caddick is missing on England duty.

The Somerset line up will be: Jamie Cox, Matt Wood, Mike Burns, Peter Bowler, Piran Holloway, Keith Parsons, Ian Blackwell, Rob Turner, Keith Dutch, Richard Johnson, Matt Bulbeck and Simon Francis.

© SOMERSET