Kyle Lightbourne, the Robin Hood coach, expects Somerset Trojans to be a major obstacle as his team bid to reach their first Dudley Eve Trophy final.

Hood are still relative newcomers to winning trophies, but they are now starting to establish themselves in the Premier Division, where they are tied for first place with Dandy Town Hornets, the Dudley Eve champions.

Hood take on Somerset at 12pm, while Hornets meet PHC Zebras at 2.30pm in Sunday’s second semi-final at Lord’s.

Although Somerset have had an indifferent start to the season under new coach Kieshon Smith, winning just once in four league matches, they have a cup-winning tradition.

“It’s ironic that we’re playing Somerset, the team that we beat last year to get to the Friendship [Trophy] final, so they probably feel they have a score to settle,” Lightbourne said.

“Somerset have had an up and down start to the defence of their league title but we’re expecting Somerset to come out and take the game to us.

“They haven’t really set the league alight but they have the potential in their players. They have a new coach who’s trying to stamp his style on the team and sometimes that takes a bit of time.

“For us, it would be nice to make it to another final, something we spoke about at the beginning of the season, trying to improve on last season’s fourth place.”

Hood won the inaugural pre-season Memorial Tournament hosted by North Village when they beat the Rams 3-2 in the final. They have also managed to put together three straight wins in the league, the only blemish being the 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Dandy Town in their opening match.

“The game against Dandy Town was disappointing, but we actually played some good football in pre-season,” Lightbourne said. “Since the season has started I don’t think we have played that well but we managed three wins on the trot. The winning mentality is there, now we have to take those performances and make them better.”

Hood will be missing midfielder Nathan Peskett who was sent off in Sunday’s win away to Boulevard when both teams had a player sent off and also missed a penalty.

It was one of only two top-flight games played after the Bermuda Football Association postponed the rest of the games because of the fatal shooting outside Southampton Rangers last week.

“We have nothing to lose and that’s the mentality we want to take into this game,” Lightbourne said. “On any given day anybody can beat anybody.

“I look at Devonshire Cougars who haven’t won a league game yet, losing by the odd goal against Rangers and PHC, but they are the only team to beat Dandy Town so far.”

Lightbourne was referring to the group matches in the Dudley Eve Trophy where Hood, Town and Cougars all finished level on points and goal difference before the drawing of lots took Hood and Town into the semi-finals as Cougars missed out.

“Cougars may be the bottom team but they have the ability to win three games in a row,” Lightbourne said.

“We managed to get to a final last year and win it due to Dandy Town having an ineligible player [Kevin Hurdle was not listed on the team sheet], but now we want to get to a final and win it outright.”

The Premier Division match postponed last Sunday between Southampton Rangers and Devonshire Colts has been re-scheduled for Sunday, November 8 at Southampton Oval.

The First Division match also postponed last Sunday between Ireland Island Rangers and St Davids has been rescheduled for Saturday at Malabar Field. Both games kick off at 3pm.