Kyle Lightbourne accepts Dandy Town will be the favourites in tomorrow’s Friendship Trophy final, but insists that his Robin Hood team will be up to the challenge despite making a first appearance in a major final.

Hood shocked holders Somerset Trojans in the Boxing Day semi-final while Dandy Town squeezed out a 3-2 extra-time win over PHC Zebras last weekend to reach their tenth Friendship final.

“Dandy Town are the favourites, are a more prestigious club, been there before done it, but now it’s up to us to upset the applecart,” Lightbourne, the Hood coach, said.

“They can play, without a doubt, but it’s up to us to upset their party. There’s no pressure on my guys, we got there on merit.”

Town have won four of their nine appearances in the final, the last victory coming in 2002-03 before losses to North Village Rams and Devonshire Cougars in 2006 and 2013.

Hood, if they win, will become only the third first-time winners of the Friendship Trophy in the last 19 years, after St George’s in 1996 and Devonshire Cougars who had their maiden win in 2005.

The competition, which will be 50 years old next season, has been dominated over the years by Village, PHC and Trojans with 31 wins between them, but now Hood have a good opportunity to add their name to the list of winners.

“I look at our last two games and don’t think we played particularly well but we got something out of them and it shows that the team is not afraid to dig in and grind out results,” Lightbourne said.

“We don’t need to make it look pretty, we need our big players to play on the day, to put in performances that are satisfactory for them and the team.

“The guys don’t know when they are beaten and that’s a good thing, something I try to preach to my team about not giving in when you are under pressure.”

Doubts remain over the fitness of Tre Dill, whose first half goal secured the win over the Trojans last week. Dill went off at half-time with a suspected hamstring injury and did not train on Monday evening.

“We’ll give it up to Thursday morning,” said Lightbourne of the injury which may not be as serious as first thought.

Miles Brewer and Liam Evans are both available after missing the semi-final while Antwan Russell, a former Dandy Town striker, is Hood’s main scoring threat.

Hood’s last two meetings with Town have been close encounters, losing 1-0 to them in the FA Cup semi-final last season when still in the First Division, while the league match between the two teams this term ended in a draw.

“When we played them early this season if we had taken our opportunities we would have won that game,” Lightbourne said. “If my big players play on the day it is going to be a tough game for them.

“We had a session last night and spoke about playing up at the stadium, what it can do for you and do against you.

“Some of my players probably haven’t played up there before and we just need to be prepared.

“The main thing is we don’t get overawed with the occasion. Everybody gets excited and hyped about the game and you can sap your energy before the game even comes.”

Town already hold four of the league’s five trophies after winning the Dudley Eve Trophy earlier this season to go with their three trophies from last season.

Colts will meet Young Men’s Social Club in the First Division Shield final. Colts, who lost to Somerset Eagles in last season’s final, are the unbeaten league leaders.

Ray Jones, the club president, said that a cup win would boost their title hunt.

“Now that we’re actually there we’re going to try to win it,” Jones said. “Leading up to it I was saying that the main thing [with Shield matches] was to keep us busy over the holiday because our ambition is to be promoted. But now we are there in two finals and we’re going there to try to win both finals.”

Colts have been replaced by PHC in the Player Development League final against Southampton Rangers. Colts have been punished for fielding an ineligible player in the semi-final.

The PDL final starts at 12pm, the Shield final at 2pm and the Friendship Trophy final at 4pm.