X-Roads are looking forward to a first season in the top flight, including goalkeeper Dashun Cooper who has helped them establish the best defensive record in the First Division.

The club, only in existence since 2004, achieved promotion a few weeks ago, now they need a point against Paget Lions to make certain of winning the title.

“Promotion was definitely the goal, we set it during pre-season and took it one game at a time,” said Cooper, 23, who wears another hat as goalkeeper coach for the national programme.

Cooper, a Dandy Town product, transferred to Robin Hood where he played under Kyle Lightbourne for a couple of seasons, then moved to Devonshire Cougars for a season before joining X-Roads last term.

Except for playing in a Dudley Eve Trophy match for Cougars, Cooper does not have much first-team experience.

However, he does come well-qualified to coach other goalkeepers after taking several courses, including four goalkeeper licences with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, as well as earning his Uefa C licence in 2015.

“Maurice Lowe, one of my former coaches, approached me in 2016 when I was training with the national team and a couple of months later I was in Haiti with the under-20s [as goalkeeper coach],” Cooper said.

“I’m with all the [national] teams right now, the women have their first round of World Cup qualifiers this summer and I’ll be with them.”

After X-Roads’ away match against Wolves at the BFA Field earlier this month, Cooper dashed to the National Stadium to prepare the Bermuda goalkeepers for the New York Cosmos match.

However, there is still plenty of playing left in Cooper, who still has aspirations of playing for Bermuda.

“For any player it’s a dream to play for your country, and it’s a dream of mine,” he said. “Playing for X-Roads has given me the playing experience I needed.

“With the national futsol programme coming up soon I will look to be in that squad as well. I’ll just push myself and see where it takes me.

“It is definitely a pleasure to work with Maurice, Andrew Bascome and Kyle Lightbourne, all former coaches of mine. Maurice was at Dandy Town when I played under-13, under-15 and under-18. I played under Bascome for a season at Hood and Cougars for a season and under “Lighty” for two seasons at Hood.”

Next season Cooper will test himself against the island’s top teams.

This season X-Roads played Premier Division sides Devonshire Colts and Dandy Town in the FA Cup, beating Colts and losing 2-1 to Town. He played in the Colts game but missed the match against Town.

“I was so gutted not to play against Dandy Town, it was definitely a match I was looking forward to,” said Cooper who had a bike accident on the morning of the match and had to watch from the sidelines.

X-Roads lead Young Men’s Social Club by two points with one match remaining. A draw against Paget will be enough to seal the title on Sunday, while Social Club play Ireland Rangers in their final game.

“We’re definitely excited about it [promotion] but we’re not thinking too far ahead because we have a big match on Sunday when we still need a result to get the trophy,” Cooper said.

“It’s really been a team job, we looked out for each other, it wasn’t just one person.” said Cooper who credits coach Farid El Karfa for keeping the team focused this season.

“Farid has done a fantastic job with the team, tactically we were spot on and when we were on Social Club’s tail, or in first place, he didn’t allow us to get complacent.

“Also a big shout-out to Jamin Furbert and Thaaqib Talbot, those two at the back played a massive role, also kept the team on their toes as well and didn’t allow anybody to get complacent, myself included.

“Sunday will be 12 games for me and I’ve had five clean sheets so I definitely want to finish off with six.

“I’m just so happy to be a part of X-Roads’ history, the club has only been around since 2004 and to be a part of the first squad that could win the league title is a real pleasure. It’s a fantastic club with fantastic people.”

X-Roads could have wrapped the title up against Wolves in their previous game, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw after having two goals disallowed.

Cooper is expecting another tough game from a Paget side that had promotion aspirations of their own this season.