AFTER playing their respective semi-finals on the tighter confines of Southampton Oval and Somerset Cricket Club, Boulevard and Devonshire Colts will relish being on the open spaces of the National Sports Centre on Sunday when the FA Cup final brings the 2006-07 season to a close. The prestigious FA Cup will have a new home following North Village’s exit in the quarter-finals to First Division team St. George’s Colts. Now the other Colts, who beat the east enders last weekend to reach their 13th FA final, will be looking to produce one final upset in the cup and reach history in the process.

On the 40th anniversary of their first FA final appearance (lost 3-2 to PHC), Devonshire Colts are 90 minutes away from becoming the first First Division team to lift the FA Cup. If they do it they will also become the first team from the lower division to win three trophies in one season, having already clinched the First Division league and Shield double.

Colts had to labour for 120 minutes before finally beating St. George’s 2-0 in extra-time at Somerset last weekend. They will have to raise their game a notch or two in order to get past Boulevard, a team determined to end their season with a trophy after wasting a good opportunity to win the league in the second half of the campaign.

“It’s the end of the season and we’re just trying to get guys motivated to finish off the season on the right foot,” said Boulevard coach John Rebello ahead of the semi-final win over Somerset Trojans. Rebello admitted winning the FA Cup would put the shine on what has been an otherwise disappointing season for the Blazers...considering what was there for them to win.

“There are two ways of looking at it, from last year to what was accomplished this year,” he says. “It’s been in leaps and bounds from last year. With the morale of the players and the youngsters coming through, I think the programme is alive down there and I think a dynasty to be built down there.

“On the flip side no one expected us to be where we were (this season) but when you reach the heights that we reached and were able to compete the way we competed you’ve got to walk away with something. We were in everything through the whole season, besides the Martonmere. We were right in there with the Dudley Eve, right in there with the league for the last three weeks before we let it slip away from us. In the semi-finals of the Friendship we were knocked out by Somerset.”

This match will represent Colts’ biggest test this season in the FA Cup, and will enable them to gauge their strength against one of the top teams ahead of next season’s return to the Premier Division. Colts had a reasonably easy route to the final with only one match against a Premier Division side. They thrashed Commercial side Bermuda Pest Control 7-0 in the first round, the same score Boulevard got by Tuff Doggs in the same round.

Colts did spring a surprise by beating bottom team St. David’s 4-2 after extra time at Lord’s, though it wasn’t considered a major upset as only two places separated the teams from the bottom of the Premier to Colts’ then second-in-the-table in the First Division.

The quarter-final draw was also favourable to Colts, as they were drawn against another First Division side, Prospect while Boulevard had to contend with a PHC side with a rich FA Cup history and aiming to becoming the first team to win 10 FA titles. Both teams won by three-goal margins, Colts stopping Prospect 4-1 and Boulevard blanking PHC 3-0 to reach the last four.

Boulevard stopped another team with their sights on a record when nine-time winners Somerset were brushed aside in the semi-finals recently while Colts ended the dream run of St. George’s with their victory last weekend.

Boulevard will go into the final as favourites — they have never lost in an FA Cup final, having won four times in the 1990s (‘90-91, 92-93, 95-96 and 96-97) — but they will have to be careful not to take Colts lightly. This tournament hasn’t seen results go as expected this season.

Shaki Crockwell will lead the Boulevard attack as they bid for a first FA Cup in 10 years, but they have other potential match-winners, too, as Raymond Burgess showed against Somerset when he came off the bench to notch the only goal in that match in extra time. Colts will look to the likes of Aljame Zuill and Clevon Hill — scorers last weekend in the semi-final — to lead their push for goals.

In the opening women’s FA final at 12.30, surprise finalists Prospect will meet Dandy Stars. Stars beat St. George’s 5-0 while Prospect upset Lady Cougars 4-0 on penalties.

Colts out to make FA<\p>Cup history