Gavin Thomason, Flanagan’s Onions assistant coach, is anxious for his side to get back on the pitch as soon as possible after last Sunday’s heartbreaking defeat by North Village.

With the FA Cup taking centre stage this weekend, and giving many teams a breather from the Premier Division, Onions will turn their attention to Hamilton Parish in their opening-round fixture at Wellington Oval.

Onions got the better of their eastern rivals in the league earlier season, with a 1-0 win.

While emphasising that getting back to winning ways in the league is the team’s main goal, Thomason believes there is something to be gained from this weekend. “After the disappointment against North Village, I would have preferred to get right back into the league games and back to winning ways there,” Thomason said,

“But then to make a run at the cup would be good for the club, too. We have proved already this season that we can compete with anybody. You always need a bit of luck in the cup, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t win it.”

Onions could count themselves unfortunate to come away empty-handed against Village, having made life difficult for their opponents for most of the match before late goals gave the visiting side a 3-1 victory.

Kevin Ronaldson opened the scoring for Onions, only for Pierre Smith to level matters minutes later. Village’s Tyrell Burgess scored from close range in the final minute of regulation time. A visibly crushed Onions then conceded again two minutes into stoppage time when Jahquan Smith-DeShields crashed a volley into the top corner from outside the box.

Looking to rectify the errors from last Sunday, Thomason is backing his side to change their fortunes, starting against Parish.

“We’re full of confidence at the moment,” he added. “We came away from Sunday’s game dejected, losing a game we could have just as likely won and that’s against a good North Village side.

“I think that’s a sign that we are growing in stature to be up there with the best teams on the Island.”