Sussex's Steve Magoffin has taken 20 wickets against struggling Somerset this season. Photograph: Harry Engels/Getty ImagesSteve Magoffin bowled Sussex to the top of the County Championship with a nine-wicket victory over Somerset at Taunton and then reflected on his extraordinary record against the cider county this season.
By claiming two of the final three Somerset second-innings wickets to fall after the hosts had begun day three on 197 for seven in their second innings, the 33-year-old Australian took his tally of victims against them in two Championship games to 20.
A return of four for 36 gave Magoffin match figures of eight for 101 to follow the 12 for 31 he claimed in the corresponding fixture at Horsham in May. "The ball has come out pretty well for me in two games and both happened to be against Somerset," said the modest Queenslander. "I guess opponents do think about it when you turn in a good performance, so perhaps I had a bit of a psychological advantage going into this match.
"The new ball, in particular, seamed around all through the game. And even when the shine went off, the pitch maintained good pace and carry."
Sussex were left with a victory target of only 91 after Magoffin had removed Alfonso Thomas and Jamie Overton, with Chris Jordan adding the wicket of Peter Trego as Somerset could add only 12 to their overnight score.
The visitors then knocked off the required runs for the loss of the opener Luke Wells, with Chris Nash hitting an unbeaten 61, including two straight sixes off George Dockrell, the second of them to finish the game.
Sussex took 23 points from the match to go 15 clear of second-placed Yorkshire, who have a game in hand, at the top of the First Division.
Somerset supporters are becoming increasingly anxious about the prospect of relegation a year after finishing runners-up in the Championship and it is a worry the captain, Marcus Trescothick, shares.
"Of course I am concerned about our position in the table," he said. "The quality of our four-day cricket is not good enough and we have to pick it up. The table doesn't lie. Our supporters are worried but they should understand that the players are hurting more than anyone. We are in the front line and need to make sure that relegation doesn't happen.
"This performance was not good enough and nor is my form at the moment. We all have to go away and work on quite a few things."
Trescothick admitted to making a mistake in batting first on a green Taunton pitch. And, with ducks in his last four innings, the 37-year-old former England opener is going through a rare trough in his illustrious career.
"I never expected the pitch to seam around as it did at the start of the game," he said. "I have to take it on the chin that losing the match was partly my fault."
Dockrell and the Sussex captain, Ed Joyce, joined the game at the start of the day following international duty with Ireland, whom they helped qualify for the 2015 World Cup with a tie in the Netherlands.
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