The Island Soccer League (ISL) Red Group will go down to the wire after Royal and Union separated themselves from Arsenal and Kings atop of the standings with one match remaining.

Royal defeated Arsenal 5-4 on Thursday night at the National Sports Centre, while Union clawed their way past Kings 6-5.

Both teams are now tied on the same points but Union have a better goal difference.

At stake in today's final round of regular season matches is a first round bye for the top-placed team, while the runners-up will square off against the third placed side.

Royal coach Gary Adams is fully aware of the importance of finishing top of the group and the benefit of playing one less game than their rivals.

"We definitely want to win our last game against the Kings and secure a first round bye as that will be one less game to worry about," said Adams.

"But this is football so we will see what happens in the final fixtures.

"Before the game against Arsenal we talked about discipline. We know we're good in attack, but we also knew they have some good players as well.

"It was just a matter of blocking the goal and taking our opportunities when they came along.

"We kept everything contained at the back and looked to exploit them when chances came our way."

Royal will get a chance to apply pressure on Union today when they play Kings at 12 p.m. Union take on Arsenal at 1.30 p.m.

Tomorrow Storm take on Apex, and Titans tackle Knights in the Blue Group.

n Bermuda Hogges' desperate hunt for their first away point of the season continues today when they face Harrisburg City Islanders at Skyline Sports Complex at 8 p.m. (Bermuda time).

Hogges have lost their last five matches on the road and slipped to the bottom of the USL-D2 league table after losing 1-0 to Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Thursday night.

Assistant coach Jack Castle said: "It's important we pick ourselves up from the disappointment of our defeat against Riverhounds and try and get something out of our game against Islanders."

Islanders suffered a surprise 5-0 defeat at Richmond Kickers last weekend but bounced back with a win over Reading Rage in the US Open Cup on Tuesday night.