Dandy Town and Somerset Eagles will do battle today to keep their Champions Cup hopes alive at Southampton Oval.

The equation is simple.

Lose and go home or win and earn the right to fight another day.

Today?s eventual winner will meet PHC Zebras on Thursday in a match that will determine the remaining finalist.

?Hopefully we can extend it because we have a large pool of players to select from and it would be nice to play in one or two more matches,? Town coach Devarr Boyles told yesterday.

The defending Premier Division and FA Cup champions are still coming to grips with the loss of promising full back Randy Swan who succumbed to massive head injuries a week ago after being involved in a two-car accident near the Southampton Rangers Sports Club on December 16.

?I thought the team performed well against Cougars in the first match considering,? Boyles continued.

?We made eight changes and with those changes maybe one of two players hadn?t necessarily played in the positions they were asked to play before and I thought they acquitted themselves.

?But as a team I thought we lacked penetration and purpose for large portions of the game. So we look to address that and also the defensive side because we now have a new-look defence.?

Hornets trained over the holiday weekend and remain committed to exposing some of their youthful crop to top-level football.

?The plan beforehand was simply to provide our players with matches over the break and play different players,? said Boyles. ?We have a few younger players back from college who we haven?t seen play. So we are very interested to find how they are developing and this tournament provides us with an opportunity to do so.

?So we are just looking to get combinations going in the middle and at the back and tinkering around with players to find out what some of the new players can bring to the team.?

The loser of today?s Town and Eagles clash will pocket $500 for their efforts.

In the First Division Champions Cup, St.David?s and St.George?s also find themselves in a must-win situation.

Both East End clubs will fight to keep their cup hopes alive with the eventual winner set to meet Prospect on Thursday in a match that will confirm Devonshire Colts? opponents in the January 2 final at White Hill Field.

Colts took route one to the final following successive wins over St.David?s and Prospect, who they beat 2-0 on Boxing Day.

Despite witnessing large crowds, the Champions Cup tournament has so far proven anything but with Premier Division clubs resting the bulk of their key players and fielding mostly youth players instead.

Just prior to the start of the tournament, runaway First Division leaders Ireland Rangers withdrew and were later joined by Premier Division club Boulevard while the likes of Somerset Trojans and North Village declined offers to play.

Seventh-placed Somerset Eagles took up the offer to replace Boulevard on the eve to the start of the festive tournament that has effectively put the former Dudley Eve Trophy tournament to rest.