Graeme Swann insists Nottinghamshire remain focused on winning Division Two of the LV County Championship as they go into their top-of-the-table clash with Somerset.

LV County Championship Division Two
August 8-11: Notts v Somerset
Start time: 11am
Tickets cost £12 for adults and £6 for concessions.
For details on getting to Trent Bridge click here.

Somerset come to Trent Bridge with a 15.5-point lead over the hosts, who have been struggling to muster their bowling attack in the last month with injuries to crucial players.

But despite Notts being 28.5 points ahead of the chasing pack in the second promotion place, 28-year-old Swann claims they cannot afford to simply consolidate on their position.

He said: “We are certainly not thinking about simply trying to hold what we have. If you think about third and fourth place, that’s where you’ll end up yourself come the end of the season.

“It’s not nice to find ourselves looking up at another side. We were named as pre-season favourites for the title and with a fully fit side I think that’s justified.

“If we keep picking up the points and the wins as we did in the first part of the summer, we will go up, and that’s always been our target.”

Notts won four out of the opening five fixtures this season to open up an early lead in Division Two.

But the effects of this summer’s bad weather means that they haven’t tasted victory since thrashing Essex at the end of May.

While Swann believes the team are still in good form, he admits they need to kick-start their promotion challenge with a win soon.

He added: “We had a great start to the season but now Somerset have that momentum and they deserve to be leading the division.

“But at the same time we have still been playing well when the weather has allowed us out, although things have been conspiring against us a bit with our bowlers dropping like flies.

“All we can do is grit our teeth and get on with it. You always look forward to taking on the best players and we do have the home advantage, which could give us a vital edge.”

Squad:
Gallian, Jefferson, Wagh, Fleming (capt), Patel, Hussey, Read (wkt), Swann, Hogg, Clough, Harris, Ferley, Shafayat.