Jarreau Hayward, the St George’s Colts coach, believes his team have their work cut out for them in their Dudley Eve Trophy Play-Off with Somerset Trojans at Goose Gosling Field tonight.

The perennial rivals will lock horns for one of the two remaining quarter-final spots up for grabs, starting at 6.30pm.

“Somerset have one of the best coaches [Scott Morton] on the island and talented players, so we will have to be ready,” Hayward told The Royal Gazette. “Hopefully we can progress to the next round.”

Both teams were forced to take the longest route to the last eight after finishing third in their respective groups during the round-robin phase of the preseason competition.

St George’s drew 2-2 with North Village before losing 5-3 to Dandy Town in an exciting high-scoring affair.

Somerset drew 1-1 with Boulevard and 2-2 with X-Roads before suffering a heavy 6-0 thrashing at the hands of a rampant PHC Zebras in the only group featuring four teams.

“We are looking forward to a challenging game against Somerset,” Hayward added. “For us it’s another opportunity to progress as a team and to continue to build and solidify relationships on and off the field.”

The match will be followed by the remaining play-off pitting Robin Hood against Boulevard, starting at 9pm. Hood lost 3-0 to promoted Hamilton Parish and 5-0 against holders Devonshire Cougars during the group stage.

Boulevard also suffered defeats in their remaining group matches, losing 3-1 to PHC and 6-1 against X-Roads.

The winners and runner up from the three groups all clinched automatic qualification to the quarter-finals.

Dandy Town topped group A with North Village finishing second. PHC finished atop group B with X-Roads second, while Cougars topped group C followed by Parish in second.

Cougars, who completed the group stage without conceding a goal, edged Dandy Town 2-1 the last time the competition was held during the 2020-21 campaign.

However, they were unable to defend their title last season after the competition was scrapped as a result of several factors associated with the global coronavirus pandemic.

The Bermuda Football Association revised the competition last year to include all of the teams in the Premier Division.