TAUNTON Town get their Southern League Division One South & West campaign under way on Saturday with a trip to Shortwood Road.

The Peacocks, who were beaten 2-0 by Banbury United in the play-off final at the end of last term, rounded off their preparations for the new campaign with a 3-2 friendly win at Western League Premier Division outfit Shepton Mallet on Monday evening.

Town made an ideal start, grabbing the lead inside two minutes via Josh Searle who lashed home a lay-off from Craig Veal.

Adam Kelly made it 2-0 five minutes later, picking out the corner of Jamie Rothwell’s net from a free kick, and Veal came close to a third before the Mallet responded on 14 minutes when Harry Ritchie lofted the ball over Josh Dempsey from the right side of the box.

After Dempsey had denied Tyson Pollard with a great save, Jordan Rogers blocked a clearance to see the ball ricochet in for a 3-1 lead on 27 minutes before David Thorne fired home on 41 minutes to reduce the deficit.

Action was more limited after the interval with few opportunities for either side to increase their goal tally.

Taunton boss Leigh Robinson said: “It was a useful exercise on a fantastic pitch and set-up at Shepton Mallet and we thank them for accomodating us at short notice.

“You normally hope that in your final friendly you have more or less your strongest team out but we weren’t able to do that, as we had to protect people for Saturday but it was a good opportunity to experiment and look at a few different things.

“It’s been a tricky pre-season with the majority of players being forced to miss quite a few games so we’re all glad it’s over and can look forward to the start of the competitive matches.”

Town’s first home fixture is against Barnstaple on Tuesday night (7.45pm).