A year ago Kenny Thompson was the unexpected hero as North Village came out of the losers' bracket to win the Dudley Eve Trophy for the first time in 11 years.

But don't expect Thompson to mix playing with his coaching duties when the Red Devils open the defence of their title against Vasco at Devonshire Rec.

tonight.

There will be added pressure on Village as they attempt to become only the second team in the 21-year history of the holiday tournament to win back-to-back titles. PHC, who lifted three straight crowns from 1988-89 to 1990-91, are the only side to successfully defend the title.

And while the Zebras, who hold a record six titles are probably the team to beat because of their first place position in the Premier Division, Village are bracing themselves for a tough defence.

Thompson is confident he has the squad to go all the way, with the side stronger in defence through the return from Vasco of Kentoine Jennings and possessing lots of experience with the presence of Elliott Jennings, Neil Robinson and another new signing Dwight (Payback) Warren, the former Boulevard captain.

Now there will be at least three other players competing for places with college students like Kaiwon Dill, Jemeiko Jennings and Kofi Dill back for Christmas -- all the more reason for Thompson to stay on the sidelines.

"Playing in the early part of the season was just a short-term thing based on the situation we had with a few players being unavailable,'' said Thompson.

"Although I felt pretty good in the first few games, due to the fact that I couldn't prepare myself and prepare the team, it took its toll after about three or four games. At this time I have no desire or plans to play.

"We have over 20 players available and now with the players coming back from school we have more than enough cover for positions, so the players themselves will have to get the job done.'' Village will be mindful of the fact that Vasco beat them in the league recently, forcing the Red Devils into a must-win match against Boulevard in order to qualify for the Dudley Eve.

"Towards the end of the first half of the season our play wasn't at the standard we would have liked and in the end the main aim was to get into the Dudley Eve and improve later,'' said the coach.

"Now's the time to show an improvement as well as trying to win the tournament.'' Added Thompson: "Preparation has been going pretty good so far. We had some good training sessions last week, mainly on the recuperation level, trying to get the players' mental and physical batteries recharged in preparation for the second half of the season.

"Teams raise their level when they play North Village. It's always, for some reason, an added incentive. Our players have to deal with that -- that they will face aggressive opponents every time they play.

"A case in point, though I didn't see the Vasco game against Somerset (Friendship), on the Sunday they were very aggressive against us and then go and lose against Somerset. It looked like they came for the three points against North Village but maybe they lacked the intensity against Somerset.'' Vasco, the first team to exit the double elimination tournament last season, are boosted by the presence of college student Clay Smith who played his first match against Colts when the team had a few regulars missing, including Clifford Roberts and Derek Stapley in defence.

They will welcome back Keith Jennings, who returned yesterday from the under-23 tour of Florida, and is available to play after missing one game through suspension.

The Village-Vasco match will follow the 7.00 opener between PHC and Devonshire Colts as the latter return to the scene of their impressive win over Vasco last weekend.

PHC have won the trophy more times than any other team while Colts can proudly boast being the first winners in 1978-79 when the trophy was put up in memory of the late BFA Director who died the year before. His son, Alfie, had the pleasure of winning the trophy while coach of PHC.

Both teams will have college students back, though PHC will miss top scorer Stephen Astwood who is serving a one-match ban for the red card he received against Dandy Town in the Friendship.

The four teams competing this year have won the trophy a combined 16 times in the 21 years of competition. Now it will be a case of the Zebras claiming a seventh title, Colts landing their first since 1982-83 or a fifth triumph for Village or Vasco? It was incorrectly stated in yesterday's Gazette that Galvin Butterfield won the fastest man in football race on Sunday. Vernon Phillips, as reported in Monday's paper, was the winner.