Durham moved back to the top of the LV= County Championship Division One table after recording their fifth win from seven games thanks to a 120-run victory with a day to spare against Somerset at Chester-le-Street.

They will remain there if second-placed Middlesex fail to beat Yorkshire, while Somerset will drop into the bottom slot if fellow strugglers Hampshire complete a victory against Sussex.

Paul Coughlin finished with figures of four for 10 off 10 overs and wicketkeeper Michael Richardson held five catches as Somerset succumbed for 158 to lose by 120 runs.

After bowling the hosts out for 314 in their second innings at the end of day two, Somerset lost their first two wickets for just 10 overs.

Graham Onions was impressive in the reverse fixture down at Taunton and he jagged a delivery into the pads of Tom Abell, before he had Johann Myburgh caught down the leg side by a sprawling Richardson, to leave the visitors 10 for two after 31 balls.

Somerset's hopes appeared to rest with their captain Marcus Trescothick and the in-form James Hildreth. Trescothick has shown throughout his career that he can dominate an innings, whilst Hildreth is the leading run-scorer in Division One this summer.

It therefore looked costly when Paul Collingwood spilled a routine catch at slip before Hildreth had got off the mark, and the two batsmen reached a 50 partnership.

Home frustrations were starting to simmer. Chris Rushworth kicked the turf in disgust when, after an lbw appeal was turned down, Trescothick top-edged a pull shot from the next delivery and the ball landed agonisingly short of Coughlin at long leg.

In the end, it did not matter because Hildreth (27) was bowled by a ball that kept low from Coughlin, and 10 minutes before lunch Rushworth produced a nasty delivery that popped up off the shoulder of Trescothick's (35) bat, giving Calum MacLeod a simple catch at gully.

Tom Cooper (seven) was the first to go after lunch, although he clearly did not agree with the caught behind decision which gave Graham Onions his third wicket.

Jim Allenby and Peter Trego did not look in too much difficulty in putting on 26, but then Allenby (17) tried to hook a John Hastings bouncer and edged to Richardson.

After Trego played himself in quietly, there was a shift in momentum in the 40th over as Onions' 13th of the innings cost 17 runs, including a no-ball.

Hastings had conceded only 14 in 12, but the next over produced 12 runs as Trego and Lewis Gregory began to go for their shots.

They were hindered by a double change, however, as the stand of 41 ended when Coughlin moved one sharply away from Gregory (18) to give Richardson his fourth catch.

Alex Barrow survived only five deliveries before shuffling into a ball from Rushworth which had him lbw for nought, while Trego fell for 35 in identical fashion to Gregory and it was all over when Tim Groenewald drove Coughlin to deep mid-off in the 52nd over.