Dandy Town Hornets are two wins away from joining an exclusive club that has not had a new member since 1970.

However, one of those members, PHC Zebras, will do their best to deny Town membership when they face them in the second match of the semi-finals which were rescheduled from tonight to April 17 at Police Field.

The end of the season has been extended by a week with the FA Cup final taking place at the National Stadium on April 24.

“The Association has decided that it would be in the best interest of all parties concerned that the FA Cup semi-finals will be played on Sunday, April 17 and not at night on Thursday, April 7 as previously scheduled,” the BFA said in a statement yesterday.

“These matches will be held at the Police Field at 1pm and 3pm respectively. This decision was taken after carefully considering the impact on all teams that will be competing in the FA Cup semi-finals as well as the remaining Premier Division matches which are scheduled on Sunday, April 10.

“As a result of the above decision, the FA Cup final and the PDL Knockout Cup final will now be played on Sunday, April 24 at the National Stadium.”

PHC, the ten-times winners, are one of only three clubs to win three straight FA Cup titles, which happened between 1960 and 1970.

PHC hold the distinction of being the first club to win three successive titles (1960-62) with Young Men’s Social Club duplicating the feat the next three seasons (1963-65) during a period when they also won three league titles.

Somerset Trojans joined that unique club with FA Cup wins in 1968, 69 and 70 and since then several clubs have achieved back-to-back successes without getting a third straight win.

Town, the two-times defending champions, will be the favourites to finish with the league and FA Cup Double, but first they face a tricky tie with a PHC team that have beaten them twice in cup competitions this season.

“Our guys are looking forward to the challenge, PHC are tough opponents so we have to be mentally strong and the players understand that,” Jomar Wilkinson, the Town coach, said.

“It won’t be hard for us to get up for this, this is the FA Cup and everybody wants to play that last game of the season in front of Bermuda. We have a huge respect for PHC who have a rich history.”

PHC defeated Town 2-0 in the Dudley Eve Trophy semi-final in November, which they went on to win, and then also beat them 3-2 in the Friendship Trophy. Town won both league encounters, including a 4-0 thrashing of Zebras in October.

“Those two games are gone, we’re definitely a different team now and we look forward to the challenge,” Wilkinson said.

“The team has to rally to make that opportunity a reality.”

Town’s players could feature prominently in the end-of-season awards with captain Angelo Simmons leading the race for top scorer in the Premier Division after his six goals on Sunday against relegated Hamilton Parish.

Simmons has 15 goals, three more than team-mate Tomiko Goater, Lejuan Simmons of Robin Hood and Donovan Thompson of Hamilton Parish. Wilkinson praised both Goater and Simmons for their contribution to the team this season.

“Tomiko Goater is one of the youth players to come through our system and kudos to our youth academy which is doing a fine job of producing these players,” he said.

“I’m glad for Tomiko that he’s reaching the expectations of our coaches and fans. He is my candidate for Young Player of the Year, he definitely deserves it. He’s got a good appetite for scoring goals and gets into scoring positions.”