BERMUDA'S national team will get a rare opportunity to play against opposition from the English leagues tonight when they take on Southend United in what has been billed as Shaun Goater's last game.

The Essex club, which gained promotion to the Championship ? England's second tier ? last season, with the help of Goater, are visiting the island primarily to pay tribute to the Bermudian striker.

For the Bermuda players, the match comes at a less-than-ideal time, before they have returned to training with their clubs, while for Southend it will be a precursor to full pre-season training. National coach Kyle Lightbourne said yesterday that the side would feature several new faces.

"Some of our players have other commitments and there is nothing we can do about that, so there will be a few players making their Bermuda debuts," Lightbourne said.

"It's the close season and most players are still two or three weeks away from starting club training, but I don't think there'll be a problem. They'll be playing against professionals and I'm sure it will be a good game for people to come and see."

The senior squad has one eye on the Digicel Cup in September, but Lightbourne has been more concerned of late with his under-20 side, which has been in training for the past ten weeks.

The youngsters are preparing for the FIFA World Youth Championships (widely known as the Under-20 World Cup) qualifying matches this summer.

Plans to give the under-20s a behind-closed-doors game with Southend fell by the wayside, to Lightbourne's disappointment.

Southend's visit has evoked memories of times when the best of British teams would frequently tour the island.

"When I was a youngster, I remember teams like Manchester United, Tottenham, Middlesbrough and Newcastle coming to Bermuda," Lightbourne said. "It would be nice for that to happen again on a regular basis, not just for the national team, but also for the clubs to get the experience of playing against professionals.

"Football has moved on a long way since those days and maybe Premiership clubs are out of reach for us now, but teams from League One or League Two would be more realistic for us, and they also play at a very high standard."

Southend have limited their training time at the National Sports Centre, as the visiting team, just like all the national squads, has to pay for use of the facilities.

Asked whether he thought it would be more satisfactory to grant use of "the carpet" to Southend for free, Lightbourne said: "Of course, that would have been nice, but everyone has to pay to use the facility.

"They call it the National Stadium, but the national team has to pay to use it ? the way it's run is to make money. For us to train there costs us a fortune. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it."

Lightbourne will hand over the coach's role to his assistant Paul Scope tonight, as he is travelling to Germany today, hoping to see the Brazil v France World Cup quarter-final tomorrow.

Football fans with eyes glued World Cup television coverage will have ample time to see the conclusion of today's second match, between Italy and Ukraine (kick-off 4 p.m.), before topping up their football fix with a trip to the National Sports Centre, where the match kicks off at 7.30 p.m.

Bermuda Football Association (BFA) general secretary David Sabir said he hoped locals would turn out in numbers to give Goater a fitting welcome home.

"This is all about the relationship between Southend United and Shaun Goater," Sabir said. "It's about what we think of Shaun and his great career and particularly the last couple of years.

"We hope people will come out and congratulate Southend on their promotion and Shaun Goater for his achievements.

"We are very grateful to Southend for choosing to come and start the pre-season preparations here in Bermuda, as it affords our team much-needed practice against professionals."

Southend coach Steve Tilson has described Goater as "the nicest bloke I've met in football" and has said the match is "90 per cent about Shaun".

The match kicks off at 7.30 p.m. tonight and tickets cost $15 for the grandstand and $10 general admission.