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Blue or red? There's really no choice . . .

Under normal circumstances North Village versus St. George's would be just a normal game and to most that's just what it is.

However, come Sunday when North Village enter Wellington Oval to play St. George's in the Premier League for the first time in several seasons, I will be watching with curiosity and anticipation.

My love of football is with North Village, but my heart is with St. George's, so who will I be routing for and what colours will I be wearing?

Growing up as a youngster, playing and training at Wellington Oval, my heart and soul supported St. George's.

I can recall going into the changing room with Dean Minors and fighting over which players' boots to clean. To clean the boots of Gary (Judge) Tucker, Clevie Wade and Stevie Dickenson, just to name a few was an absolute honour.

Sitting on the side watching St.George's play used to give me goose bumps as all I could imagine and dream about was putting on a blue and blue jersey once I turned sixteen.

Mind you. I had a passion for red and white. Whenever Christmas came around my mom would always get me red and white football gear to wear. So even though I had a passion for St.George's, red and white were always my favourite colours.

Back then every time I went to the National Stadium it seemed to be North Village in the finals.

Of course, they wear red and white so I always routed for them. As I got older and studied the game, I realised that it was their style of play that really attracted me and I grew to admire the technical aspects that they brought to the game.

Early in my senior career I played my football at St. George's. Although we never challenged for the league title we certainly were not pushovers. We were always looked upon as a cricket team but we had some decent footballers.

It wasn't until we managed to get to the Friendship finals against Devonshire that we earned respect in the football world. A memory that will stick with me forever, beating Devonshire 1-0 at the National Stadium, better known as the "Carpet".

It was that winning feeling that urged me to want more, and the more I watched them the hunger to play for NVCC steadily increased.

Playing striker or up front for St.George's made you to make the most out of your chances. If you got three chances a game you were lucky so you had better make good those opportunities. Watching North Village and witnessing how many chances they created during one half made me long for service as a striker like that.

Eventually years later I got my opportunity to fulfill my dream of playing for North Village. Unfortunately, in my first year I was made to wait for my opportunity as I had got a late transfer and couldn't play until November.

Upon joining Village in November they were sitting in second to last place and I was wondering if I had made the right choice or not. However, with the league being very competitive all the teams were beating each other, Village went unbeaten the second half of the season to lift the Premier League title.

The following year, Village would go on and win the league title again and were on course for the Triple Crown as we were in the Friendship and FA cup finals. So anxious to try and impress in the finals, I remember going to Wellington Oval two days before the game to do some extra sprint work to make sure I was ready and blew my knee out.

Village went on to only win one out of the two finals and that injury put an end to my career.

So having said all of that, you can see why I am attached to both teams.

However, if that weren't enough let me take it one step further. My oldest son Clay Darrell currently leads St.George's front line and has been very impressive so far this season.

With a little bit more composure around the goal he could easily be leading the goalscoring charts. On the flip side of things, my brother-in-law, Ralph Bean, and youngest son Jonte' Smith play for Village, therefore I am always looking for them to excel.

Ralph has emerged as one of the top players locally and you only have to look at Village's record over the last five seasons to see the major impact he has made.

Jonte' on the other hand has come through the Village junior ranks and is definitely a player for the future. So as you can see the family ties are very close when it comes to both teams.

Prior to this season, St.George's' coach Richard Todd was looking for players to help strengthen his team and he jokingly said to me, "What are the possibilities of Jonte' coming St.George's to play with his older brother Clay?"

While the thought of it sounded very interesting I knew it would never happen. As Jonte', the rest of my family, and my in laws are staunch North Village. No choice really.

Most football followers would automatically think that this would be a one-sided affair between the two teams, with North Village dominating, but all you have to do is look at the track record of these teams and you will see differently.

St.George's have been one of Village's bogey teams over the years. If there was ever one top team that St.George's could beat it was Village.

This season both teams have started with identical records – two wins with one loss, thus showing the closeness of this match.

This will be a midfield battle for sure as these two teams possess some of Bermuda's best midfielders. At the end of the day, though, it is goals that win matches and if St. George's can gain a little composure in front of goal they could yet again upset North Village.

From a football technical perspective, playing North Village on a big field certainly favours the Red and White.

However, any avid sports fan knows that self-belief is one of the most important factors and weapons in a match.

With St.George's currently riding high, they enter this match as slight favourites, especially with the match in their own backyard.

So what colours will I be wearing or what team will I be supporting? It's simple.

While my love of football is with North Village, my heart is with St. George's as I bleed blue and blue. My prediction for this match is 2-1 St. George's!

After this match maybe people will start to take St.George's football team seriously. We are a double sporting club.

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Published October 22, 2010 at 1:00 am (Updated December 10, 2010 at 10:14 am)

Blue or red? There's really no choice . . .

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