North Village's Red Devils will be looking to unleash the heat on Devonshire Colts when they take to the field for the first leg of the Dudley Eve final tonight.

Coach Scott Morton says he has told his players to treat the game at Somerset CC (9 p.m.) as if it were the be all and end all and look to squeeze the life out of the orangemen at the first attempt.

Morton said: "Last night in training I told my players it's a one-off shot.

Basically you have to go for it all, don't hold back, put in 100 per cent -- if you feel tired at half-time, you come off and I appreciate you putting in the effort.

"It's not like in the league where you are out to gain points -- it's a one-off shot. It's a two-leg final, but you are going out there to win, not trying to conserve anything.

"That's how we approach the season and that's why I think we are in the position we are in in the league because we approach every game like it's the final game.'' The sides have played each other twice this season and Village have won both contests convincingly, 5-2 in the league and 3-1 in the Martonmere Cup.

But Morton said he would not allow his players to rest on their laurels.

"I was watching the game (against PHC) last night and I saw the intensity Colts came out with,'' he said.

"Obviously they believe in playing for 90 minutes, but an added bonus for them is the fact that they have a few of their college players back, especially Damon Ming who has added a bit of energy to their team.

"I expect to see a different Colts, but sometimes like they say, bad habits never die.'' Village have had the chance to rest up following their penalties victory over PHC on Sunday, which secured their berth in the final.

But Morton said that wasn't necessarily a bonus.

"It's six one way, half a dozen the other, that's the way I look at it,'' he said. "Sometimes a rest is no good because it breaks your momentum. That said, no team in this tournament has played consistently well so I would not give one team the edge at this moment in time, but a rest is good for players to recuperate from little knocks or injuries that they might have at the time.'' Apart from minor niggles, Morton said his side was in pretty good shape.

"We have Kentoine (Jennings) nursing a slight groin and hamstring injury. But that is nothing major. He got some rest last night and didn't have to train, so he should be ready to go on Saturday night,'' he said.

"There might be one or two changes, but basically it will be the same. I tell my players that because of the depth of my team if you perform you stay in, if you don't you come out and I give someone else a try. That keeps the level at a high.'' Morton believes his side has what it takes to free Colts grip on the trophy they won last year.

"I have no fear. I have all the confidence in the world in my team,'' he said. "A gentleman said to me last night that talent does a lot for a coach.

I agree with him, you can have all the tactical options and know-how in the world, but if you do not have the individual talent to go along with that then you are not going to get very far. So I feel privileged to be a part of North Village Community Club with the talent they have.'' Colts skipper Shannon Burgess said defending the trophy was important to the club.

"Obviously we want to defend the trophy. That was our ultimate goal at the beginning of the competition. Even when we were struggling to make the top four (in the league) that was a big motivation for us,'' he said.

"The chance to defend our trophy should be a great motivation for us, especially because of the manner in which we won it last year.'' Continued on page 29 Colts are psyched up Continued from page 27 Colts skipper Burgess added: "We wanted the chance to get back to the final and we have done that -- now we have to take care of business on the day.'' Burgess said the players were feeling the exertions of the last week or so, but would be psyched up when kick-off time arrived.

"Obviously they are going to be at an advantage because of the extra break, and our legs are kind of heavy, so we are going to have to find a way to counteract that,'' he said.

"We are going into the game to win. Obviously we have to execute some things on the day in order to achieve that result.

"One of the things we have to do is put the ball in the back of the net.

Defensively, the last two games we played them we used a few inexperienced guys at the back and they made us pay for it in each game.

"With the more experienced guys we have now we have to look to shut their frontrunners out and then go from there.'' Burgess said although penalties had played a large part in this year's competition, matches hadn't been as tight as that outcome might suggest.

"Football is a funny game. I'm sure of the games that went to penalties if teams had finished their chances or not given up goals they gave up they wouldn't have gone that way,'' he said.

"The goal I scored last night the goalkeeper maybe should have done better with, and the goal they scored was a blunder at the back. In the Dandy Town and North Village game you saw a goal directly from a corner -- games might not have been as close if those mistakes had not been made.'' Burgess said coach Ray Jones had not announced his team yet, but he was not expecting wholesale changes.

"The team that started for us over the last three or four games has played fairly well. So he may look to keep it that way, or he may use some fresh legs for the first leg,'' he said.

"These guys have done well for us over the tournament but you have to make tactical decisions regarding whether they can do it again for two more games in 48 hours.'' Burgess, who scored from the half-way line in Colts victory over PHC on Thursday night, said adding to his tally in the final wasn't his main concern.

"I don't even know how many goals I have and I'm not really concerned about it because we haven't achieved a shut-out in quite a few games. That's my priority, to keep the goals down,'' he said.

Damon Ming: energetic.