North Village’s Premier Division title defence faces a crucial test when they play Dandy Town at Bernard Park on Sunday.

With four matches left, the champions are fourth on 25 points, six points off leaders Town.

Village coach Calvin Dill Jr is viewing the upcoming encounter, which kicks off at 3pm, as the toughest of them all and a game they must win to stay in the title race.

After Town, Village’s remaining matches are against St George’s Colts, Paget and Young Men’s Social Club.

“We believe this is our most difficult remaining game,” Dill told The Royal Gazette.

“We have to take every game as it comes and be professional about it and take no one for granted.

“We’ve been working hard this week. We had a little practice match on Friday night against the women’s national team to help them prepare for their international match.”

With Town heading into the weekend’s fixtures at the summit of the standings after beating Paget on Wednesday, Dill believes the game will be more difficult for their opponents.

“We know we have to win but the pressure’s on them more so than us,” the Village coach said.

“They’re up top and they are leading so the pressure’s on them to make sure that we don’t win. If we win, we also allow PHC to go ahead and we’ll still be chasing PHC.

“In order for us to retain it, we have to win all our remaining matches, there’s no two ways about it.”

Village and Town have met five times this season. Jarreau Hayward’s side has had an upper hand in those fixtures, with three wins, from the Charity Cup victory at the start of the season, followed by triumph in the Dudley Eve and Friendship Trophy final on New Year’s Day.

Dill’s team has claimed crucial victories over Town, with a 1-0 triumph in the league last November as well as a 2-1 success in the FA Cup first round in January.

“We just have to play our game, do what we have to do and get the job done,” the Village coach said.

“I think the boys are hyped for it and understand what we have to do. We have to stick to our game plan, execute it, shut the frontman down and we should be all right.”

PHC, who were on top until Town overtook them on Wednesday, start the weekend action against Devonshire Cougars at PHC Field on Saturday night (8pm).

Kyle Lightbourne is taking charge of the 13-times champions in the absence of head coach Cecoy Robinson, who is away with the Bermuda Under-20 in Costa Rica.

Enrique Russell will be looking to add to the 12 league goals he has scored. The forward is fighting for the Golden Boot with is Bermuda team-mates, David Jones Jr, Zeiko Lewis, Senoj Mitchell and Danavon Thompson.

Russell was at PHC on Wednesday night to witness Jones score a brace off the bench for Town, before Mitchell was kept off the score sheet by St George’s.

“I don’t really focus on what others do. I work on my own game and do what I do best,” Russell said.

“The most important thing to me is winning trophies for my club, personal accomplishments come after that.

“We are now treating every game from now on as a cup final. We’ve done well to prepare, hopefully, we can execute what we’ve worked on. This is a team that we drew with last time out, so we’re looking to do better than that this time around.

“With Colts dropping points it opens the league up tremendously. But we also don’t expect any handouts if we want to win the league.”

Paget, third from bottom, face Boulevard at White Hill Field on Saturday (3pm), with both sides battling against relegation.

At Police Field, Devonshire Colts, seeking to bounce back to winning ways, take on X-Roads .

Ray Jones’s side suffered a shock 1-0 loss to St George’s Colts on Wednesday, to miss out on going joint top of the standings with PHC.

“This will be the fifth time playing them so we expect a very difficult match,” Jones said.

“They have come off a great result and we are coming off our first loss of the new year. We had a session on Friday night to work on a few things to prepare. Hopefully, we’ll get back on track.”

Farid El Karfa, the X-Roads coach, heaved a sigh of relief after his side finally remembered how to win. They defeated St George’s 4-1 last Sunday, having gone eight matches without tasting victory.

“Our match against Devonshire Colts is another opportunity to compete against one of the strongest teams in the league this season so far,” El Karfa said.

“We are ready to show good character, play good football and aim for another three points again, following a victory versus St George’s last week.

“We are aware the opposition is a difficult one but the team is ready for the competition.”

St George’s have a chance to build on the win over Colts when they meet Social Club at Wellington Oval on Sunday (3pm).