TAUNTON Town have secured automatic promotion to the Evo-Stik South Premier for the first time in their history – and Salisbury are well on course to join them.

Taunton’s 3-2 home win over Kidlington means the league leaders cannot finish outside the top two.

And with a 14-point cushion over second-placed Salisbury they are firm favourites for the title.

But, with two to go up automatically this season, Steve Claridge’s Whites took another significant stride towards top-flight football by overwhelming Shortwood United 6-1 at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium on Saturday.

Luke Hopper got the ball rolling early with a first-minute opener, following up on Claudio Herbert’s mis-hit shot.

By the 33rd minute it was 4-0 with set-piece maestro Lewis Benson heavily involved.

It was from Benson’s cross that Eddie Perrett bundled home Salisbury’s second before George Colson met his deep free-kick with a downward header.

Ex-Andover man Benson then supplied the through ball for Zack Kotwica to bag the Whites’ fourth.

The second-half belonged to man-of-the-match Sam Roberts who drilled home from the edge of the area for 5-0 before burying another great strike from Kotwica’s cut-back – much to the pleasure of 627 Ray Mac crowd.

Shortwood, who replied late through Yesh Lometey, are resigning from the Southern League at the end of the season.

Having lost a major sponsor, the 19th-placed Gloucestershire club can longer meet the financial commitment needed to play at Step 4 of the non-League pyramid. With only one team due to go down, it will take the pressure off table-propping Bishops Cleeve.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s match, Salisbury boss Steve Claridge said: “We all feel for Shortwood, but we need to get the job done from our perspective,”

Salisbury’s next assignment could be trickier with a trip to sixth-placed Wimborne Town awaiting them tomorrow afternoon (Easter Monday, 3pm).

Wimborne, though, were given a rude awakening on Saturday as their recent good form was halted with a 4-1 defeat at Bristol Manor Farm.

The Magpies fell 4-0 down after 37 minutes before top gun Toby Holmes pulled one back before half-time.

Both AFC Totton and Winchester City were beaten by the weather on Saturday.

Winchester’s pitch failed an early morning inspection, forcing the postponement of their home game against in-form Cirencester Town.

It was the same story for Louis Langdown’s Totton whose scheduled match at Yate Town also fell victim to heavy rain.

Weather permitting, the two teams will go head-to-head at Totton’s Total Branding Community Stadium tomorrow afternoon (Monday, 3pm).

Totton are eighth in the table, four points above 11th-place Winchester who have a game in hand.