Somerset eye Lord's but Rose issues warning

5:46pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

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DIRECTOR of cricket Brian Rose has warned Somerset they can only afford to lose one more Friends Provident Trophy game if they are to keep their Lord's dream alive - and he is all too aware of the threat Gloucestershire will pose when the sides meet on Sunday.

The Cidermen are back on the road to Lord's when they travel to Bristol to take on Gloucestershire.

After playing half of their fixtures in the zonal stage, the Sabres are currently top of the South and West table with five points, having beaten Hampshire at home and away and taken a point from the abandoned game at Worcestershire.

Somerset will hope to perform better than during their first defeat of the campaign against Glamorgan at the County Ground on Sunday.

Rose said: "In this particular group we must only lose one more game.

"If we win the rest then that is what we would like to do.

"We have to recover from Sunday's defeat pretty quickly because Gloucester are playing well.

"We have to watch out for them because they are a good side this year."

Provided Somerset can end in the top two after the zonal stages, they will qualify for the last eight of the only one-day competition featuring a Lord's final.

When Somerset and Gloucestershire met in a pre-season one-day match it was the Cidermen who triumphed, but their opponents are likely to provide a sterner test on Sunday.

Ahead of the crucial 50-over match big-hitting Ian Blackwell, who has enjoyed a fine start to the season, said: "If we had beaten Glamorgan we would have seven points from four games, however we lost and now we know we need to try to win as many of the remaining matches as we can to be certain of qualifying for the last eight.

"The first is up at Bristol, which is always a tough place to play."

Somerset's next County Championship match is at home against last season's champions Sussex, starting next Wednesday.