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Colts aiming to cap memorable campaign

Title tilt: Devonshire Colts and St George’s, seen in action in November , will battle for sole possession of first place in the First Division today at Wellington Oval. Devonshire Colts were drawn against North Village in the semi-final of the FA Cup yesterday. (File photograph by Lawrence Trott)

Holders Robin Hood will meet X-Roads in a repeat of last year’s FA Cup final, while First Division side Devonshire Colts face North Village, the Premier Division leaders, in the other semi-final scheduled for next weekend.

Colts, the only side from the lower division to win the FA Cup when they beat Boulevard 2-0 in the 2007 final, produced the upset of this year’s competition when they stunned league champions PHC 4-2 in the last round.

Ironically, Shannon Burgess, who was captain of that Colts team, made the draw yesterday as chairman of the BFA competitions committee, pulling Colts first out in the draw to set up a tie with Village. His son, San-Tze Burgess, who is in school in the UK, is among the crop of young players coming through the Colts programme.

Hood and X-Roads will play in the second semi-final next Sunday at Wellington Oval.

Regardless of next week’s outcome against Village, it has been an outstanding season for Colts who play another big match today when they travel to Wellington Oval to take on fellow promoted side, St George’s Colts, in a top of the table First Division clash.

The teams are tied on 34 points with Devonshire Colts, the top scorers, holding down top spot on goal difference. Youngsters Chemarl Henry and Seanoj Mitchell are the division leading goals scorers with 14 and 12 goals respectively.

“Everything’s a bonus now,” said Jones. “For us, with promotion being secured, it makes sense to test ourselves against the big boys because next year that’s who we’ll be playing against.

“It looks like Village are going to be the league champions, so let’s give it a crack next Saturday night to see where we measure up and how much work we will have to do in the off-season.

“When the FA Cup draw was coming up, we never looked to avoid anybody. My thing is if that is where we are going to end up next season, which we are now, then we need to be playing these teams now in order to get a feel for it.

“In the last round, we played PHC and came out on top. It gave us a good feeling. PHC are the defending league champions and we were able to go in their back yard and get a decent result.”

Winning the Shield was another bonus for Colts and now the First Division title beckons as Colts switch their focus to the St George’s match today.

St George’s are one of only two teams to beat Colts this season, Vasco the other.

There are a lot of similarities between the two Colts, not just in name, with St George’s also boasting a young side as they set the early pace and won promotion with games to spare.

“No, I wouldn’t say we overachieved, with the quality we have,” Jones said of his own team.

“Having this group available to us for the first time in two or tree years we thought we could be in the mix and set that goal of promotion.

“We have a bunch who have been at the club since they were five years old. They started in the under-7 programme and progressed through each age group together.

“They are born and bred Colts, everybody has been at the club pretty much all of their lives.”

The 5-1 loss to St George’s in November is fresh on the minds of the both sets of players ahead of today’s clash.

“We are looking forward to it, Colts versus Colts, both teams tied on points and a trophy potentially at stake, so it is a big game,” Jones admitted.

“In the league, they are the only team left that we haven’t beaten, and we would like to finish the season and say we have beaten every team.

“If you look at their goals against it is impressive, they have a very stingy defence and it’s no secret they probably have the best goalkeeper in Bermuda in both leagues in Freddie Hall.

“I’ve also got to take my hat off to the coach [Jarreau Hayward], St George’s born and bred. I like what he’s done because St George’s, like us, have all their players from St George’s.

“There’s a lot of respect, we share pleasantries all the time, we did the recent B licence course together and became friends from a coaching perspective.

“That’s why I think this match is going to be special, both teams are going to be represented by true club players. It should be a good day.”

A top Premier Division match is also scheduled for today, with PHC, third, taking on fourth-placed Dandy Town at PHC Field in what could possibly be a battle for second place.

PHC and Town are tied on 27 points, four behind Robin Hood.

Tomorrow’s matches will see leaders North Village hosting Somerset Eagles at Bernard Park while Devonshire Cougars meet Robin Hood at Devonshire Rec and Somerset host Southampton Rangers in a relegation battle. Boulevard, already relegated, travel to Garrison Field to meet X-Roads.