will make Sunday's First Division games irrelevant to the top of the table.

The defending champions need just a draw to claim successive titles against a side fourth from bottom in the league and also requiring just a point to be sure of avoiding relegation.

However, after the unexpected cancellation of last night's First Division game between already-relegated Hamilton Parish and Devonshire Cougars, it wasn't known whether this evening's game would be played.

But if it is, Vasco might be thankful to Boulevard, whose action in their FA Cup semi-final against Devonshire Colts -- when Haile Outerbridge threw a bottle at the referee leading him to abandon the game -- caused the subsequent cancellation of all last Sunday's First Division games. That decision, by the BFA, as good as ruled North Village and Dandy Town, who meet on Sunday, out of the equation.

Coach John Rebello said he had sympathy with Vasco's two rivals for the championship crown, but he added: "We thought we pretty much had it secured.

"We thought that with them playing they may have knocked each other out of the running. But what was done by the BFA was not something we at Vasco would have wanted.'' Tuesday night's Friendship Trophy semi-final may have provided some clues to the outcome of tonight's fixture -- had it been played.

But, in spite of last minute talks between the BFA and Boulevard, the club stuck to their guns in deciding not to turn up.

They had announced their decision not to play the game in a statement released late the previous night, claiming that the cancellations had made "little inroads'' into the issue of violence in the sport.

Rebello, who ironically was planning to step down in the summer after his club won the triple crown last season, now finds himself contemplating leading them to a third First Division title after officials persuaded him to stay on.

There will be no triple crown this time round -- Vasco bowed out of the FA Cup at the quarter-final stage to Dandy Town -- but with a decision on the Friendship Trophy semi boycotted by Boulevard still to be taken, Rebello might yet be content with two pieces of silverware.

Vasco made a stuttering start to the season, drawing their first three games, perhaps because of a measure of over-confidence. But since then they have won 10 and drawn two of their 12 league fixtures, averaging two goals a game and conceding just seven in total.