Two of the most successful teams in the history of the Friendship Trophy will seek to add to their remarkable legacies in the competition at Somerset Cricket Club on Sunday.

PHC Zebras and North Village, who share 23 titles between them, will square off in what promises to be an exciting showdown in the fourth final PHC and Village have contested in the competition, the latest of which came when PHC prevailed 2-0 during the 2017-18 season.

Village may hold a psychological advantage heading into the contest after beating their rivals in the two previous meetings this season. Kenny Thompson’s team won 1-0 in the league in September in the first game under floodlights at PHC Field in more than two decades before repeating the dose five days later when they won by the same margin to advance to the semi-finals of the Dudley Eve Trophy.

With little separating the team in those meetings, PHC coach Winston Trott Jr is bracing himself for another evenly-fought contest.

“I think it should be a tough and a good game,” he said. “It’s going to be a chess game and I don’t think anybody wants to be reckless.”

Trott says his squad is at full strength and is not treating the match as a special occasion.

“It’s just another game and that’s how you have to look at it,” he added. “It’s just somebody who is in the way of your success and you have to deal with the situation.”

While Trott is seeking to keep things calm, his Village counterpart Thompson is happy to lead his team to their first cup final in three seasons.

“We are feeling very positive and are pleased to get to the final,” he said. “It’s our first final since reaching the FA Cup final in 2019-20, just before Covid shut things down, so we didn’t get the chance to play in that one. This is the first time since so we are happy to get into a final.”

Despite seemingly having the indian sign over his opponents recently, Thompson does not feel previous meetings will have too much of a bearing on Sunday’s final.

“These things can work for you or against you,” he said. “We have beaten them twice this season, so they will definitely be determined as a result. We know we have beaten them so we feel confident, but as I said these things can work for you or against you so we just have to be fully focused and concentrated.

“It’s not the league match we played this season, it’s not the Dudley Eve knockout match we played earlier this season. This is a completely new match and we have to approach it as such.

“We are talking about two teams that are very evenly matched so it could be close. Football is very unpredictable but I can’t predict how the match is going to go. We can just stay in control of some of the things that we put in place and then react well to whatever situations may come up within the match as well.”

Thompson could be forced to make at least one change to his starting line-up as midfielder Tre Ming remains doubtful.

The former PHC player suffered a hamstring injury in Village’s semi-final win over Dandy Town on Boxing Day and is scheduled to undergo a late fitness test to determine his availability.

“We will look at Tre and assess him,” Thompson said.

The Friendship Trophy final will be preceded by the First Division Shield final pitting last season’s runners up Young Men’s Social Club against a rejuvenated Paget Lions.

The two promotion hopefuls battled to a 3-3 stalemate in the only meeting between them this season in the league at Bernard Park in October.