The new football season kicks off on Sunday with the Charity Cup at Goose Gosling Field before a Dudley Eve double-header at Bernard Park on Monday.

Cal Blankendal, the Bermuda Football Association first vice-president, released the 2014-15 schedule yesterday, which has league matches beginning on the weekend of September 19, when champions Dandy Town begin the defence of their title with a trip to Wellington Oval to meet newly promoted St George’s Colts.

Town are also in action on Sunday evening when they meet Somerset Trojans, the Friendship Trophy champions, in the Charity Cup at 7pm.

“The match is an important and prestigious one as it allows our football community to give back to Bermuda and we will announce the recipients of the proceeds from this match prior to the start of the match,” Blankendal said.

Last season’s Charity Cup was a year ago today when Devonshire Cougars thrashed Trojans 6-3. Somerset had a slow start to last season but recovered to finish strongly, winning the Friendship Trophy after beating Hamilton Parish in the final.

The new season will bring new expectations for Trojans, with former coach Dennis Brown returning to the club as technical director.

“On behalf of the officers and members of Somerset Cricket Club we are privileged to be afforded the opportunity to play in this season’s Charity match versus the Dandy Town Hornets,” Vashun Blanchette, a Trojans player and the club’s vice-president, said.

“Our goals going into the season are to remain humble, work hard and try to build on the successes of last season and represent the community well. We had a rough start [last season] but I would put our season, which ended up relatively well, down to hard work.

“We had a committed group, even towards the end of the season we had in excess of 30 guys training so it wasn’t just the eleven playing on a Sunday but the whole roster of players who kept everyone sharp and focused.

“This year we are having a better start, we started before Cup Match and the numbers have been good, everyone’s hungry and we’re looking for good things.

“We just want to remain humble because the season is eight months long and anything can happen between September and April.”

Somerset will be hoping for better fortunes in the Dudley Eve, where last year they were beaten 4-1 by Devonshire Cougars and 6-1 by Dandy Town in their two group A matches.

This year they are in group B along with North Village and Hamilton Parish.

The opening matches on Monday night will have North Village taking on Hamilton Parish at 3pm and Flanagan’s Onions, first-time qualifiers, facing Devonshire Cougars at 5pm.

Further Dudley Eve matches are scheduled for next Friday at Devonshire Rec where Village play Somerset at 7pm and Town take on Cougars at 9pm.

The final group matches will be played on September 13 at Police Field where Hamilton Parish play Somerset at 3pm and Onions meet the Hornets at 5pm.