Somerset go into their county championship match against Kent at Taunton tomorrow knowing that nothing short of an outright victory will be enough to help them to escape relegation to the second division next season.

Earlier this season when the two sides met at Canterbury it was the `White Horse' county who came out on top. Since then Kent have recruited the services of Aussie superstar Steve Waugh, himself a former Somerset player, to boost their championship chances.

Everyone in the Somerset camp is only too well aware of the situation that they find themselves in.

Captain Jamie Cox told me: "We need to win this one, because we are sitting last at the moment and the only way that we can improve our position is to win matches. If we don't win then we will be playing in the bottom division next season which we don't want, but I am confident that we will be staying up in the top flight."

All rounder Mike Burns told me: "This is another huge game for us, and if we perform as well as we did in our last home game then we should win. We had a shocker at Blackpool but we played well against Warwickshire down here, its just a pity that we couldn't take that last wicket."

The former Warwickshire player continued: "I reckon that we need to win at least two of our remaining games and get good points from the other to stay up, and I don't see any reason why we shouldn't. Everybody is thinking that we can stay up, and we have bailed ourselves out of this sort of situation before."

Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "We are looking for a win, its as simple as that."

What was the side likely to be I asked the coach. He told me: "We have a few aches after our hectic weekend and will not decide on a final line up until the morning."

With Andy Caddick and Marcus Trescothick both back on England duty the squad for the match will be: Jamie Cox, Matt Wood, Mike Burns, Peter Bowler, Keith Parsons, Ian Blackwell, Rob Turner, Keith Dutch, Richard Johnson, Matt Bulbeck, Stefan Jones and Piran Holloway

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