Somerset head to County Champions-elect Durham today hoping to fully erase memories of being bowled out for 69 by the north east county in April.

The Taunton side's usually impressive batting line-up was humbled by Test pacemen Graham Onions and Steve Harmison in a game that Somerset CCC then salvaged an unlikely LV County Championship draw from.

Durham need a maximum of 38 more points to retain their title – a victory that has been built on a battery of high-class fast bowlers.

Neither Onions nor Harmison is on England one-day duty, so they are expected to take the new ball again.

For the Somerset cause, much will depend on the form of Marcus Trescothick, who needs only to stroke a couple of fours to go past 1,500 first-class runs for the season.

The vice-captain said: "It is a big game and if we want to contend for winning the title we have to beat them – that's got to be the key.

"They are a good side and they have played well all year, so it will be a really good challenge to see how we can compete against them on their own ground.

"We played against them once this year and had a pretty good game."

Trescothick half jokes that he can barely recall the 69 all out. "When was that? I can't remember," he said. "Hopefully we won't have a repeat but we will have to work hard and put in a good performance."

The Durham game looks likely to be Justin Langer's final away match as Somerset captain, with an announcement thought to be imminent that he is to leave the club at the end of the season.

The 38-year-old Australian's exit will come as no real surprise and Somerset will hope that his successor – who will surely be Trescothick – will reap the benefits of the steel Langer has instilled in the team since he took over with the club bottom of Division Two after the 2006 campaign.

The England team needed Nasser Hussain's aggressive approach to set the platform for Michael Vaughan's more cerebral and successful captaincy stint and Taunton members will hope a similar scenario develops at the County Ground.

Somerset will be back in action just 41 hours after leaving the field having drawn with Hampshire.

They flew to the north east after the close of play, but it is still hardly ideal preparation for a clash with the leaders.

Seamers Ben Phillips and Mark Turner have been added to the 11 on duty at Southampton and one of those two looks sure to replace one of the spinners, Max Waller and Omari Banks.

Turner is a former Durham prospect who has not played a first-class game since April, when he suffered a groin injury.

Somerset (from): Trescothick, Suppiah, Langer, Hildreth, de Bruyn, Kieswetter, Trego, Banks, Thomas, Waller, Willoughby, Turner, Phillips.