Ben Phillips believes Somerset can put Hampshire under pressure after his two late wickets on the first day of the LV= County Championship match at the Rose Bowl.

The tall seam bowler, playing his first four-day match of the season, claimed scalps in his last two overs to restrict the hosts to 281 for seven after they had won the toss.

Phillips and Charl Willoughby were Somerset's star performers with two and three wickets respectively as Marcus Trescothick's men battled on a cold, windy day and a pitch that did not help the bowlers.

Phillips said: "I wasn't going to be playing until Thommo [Alfonso Thomas] pulled out late in the morning, so it was nice to play.

"Having Damien Wright here has not really helped my cause in terms of getting a place in the side – he has done very well and is a first pick and I have had to wait my turn – but I bowled reasonably well today and, if we can knock them over early, we will have done well."

Willoughby got Somerset into a strong position at 123 for five but a lack of real quality back-up bowling allowed Nic Pothas and Sean Ervine to thump a stand of 158 for the sixth wicket in 40 overs.

Willoughby had been left out of Sunday's Clydesdale Bank 40 win over the Unicorns but he bounced back to form after going wicketless in last week's draw with Lancashire at Old Trafford.

The left-armer had Jimmy Adams leg before wicket for one, propping forward in the third over, and then Michael Carberry, the country's second top run-scorer after Yorkshire's Jacques Rudolph, was caught behind cutting for eight.

Hampshire would have been 19 for three had James Hildreth not dropped Liam Dawson at second slip, also off Willoughby, to end the Kolpak signing's pre-lunch spell of two for eight.

Leg-spinner Michael Munday then came on for the over after lunch and Dawson failed to make good his fortune when he missed a sweep at the third ball and was sent on his way lbw for 28.

After lunch former Somerset batsman Neil McKenzie grafter his way to 48 before he tried to drive Pete Trego and chopped on to his stumps. Then Willoughby returned to slant one across England Under-19 man James Vince, who pushed forward and edged behind for 26.

But from then on the African pair counter-attacked in a manner that did not suggest Hampshire had lost all four previous Championship games. If they lose this one, it will be the club's worst-ever start to a season.

Munday was particularly expensive. He was trusted with nine overs and conceded 54 runs as he was struck for three sixes. It is never easy for a youthful leg-spinner, but he lacks the control of his younger colleague Max Waller.

Wright, in his last Championship match before he is replaced in Somerset's squad by Murali Kartik, and Phillips, in his first four-day appearance of the season, toiled hard. Phillips was rewarded when Pothas top- edged a pull for 87 before Dominic Cork fended into the slips for a duck. Ervine will resume on 75 not out.