A new team will go top of the Premier Division table tonight as Devonshire Cougars and Somerset Trojans look to capitalise on Dandy Town’s shock defeat to Hamilton Parish last weekend.

Regardless of the result of tonight’s match at Devonshire Recreation Club, Town will lose the top spot, if only for a couple of days.

Town travelled to Wellington Oval and were handed a 2-1 defeat last weekend, but Trojans failed to capitalise as they could only manage a 1-1 draw with North Village to join Hornets on 22 points.

Cougars cut the gap between themselves and the leaders to two points after beating St David’s 2-0 and now the battle will be on to see who replaces Hornets in first place.

A draw will put Trojans a point clear of Town while victory for Cougars will move them into top spot by a point.

It still remains a four-team title race with just three points separating Town from Village. Cougars, who lost to Parish in the semi-finals of the Friendship Trophy to lose their bid to repeat as Triple Crown champions, were grateful for Parish’s win over Town which puts them right back into contention in the league.

First place beckons for Cougars, provided they can beat Trojans who defeated them 4-2 in October. Somerset recovered from some heavy defeats early in the season to win the Friendship Trophy on New Year’s Day and are now just a point away from taking over the top spot.

Tonight’s match could go a long way to determining the title hopes of both teams as Dennis Brown, the Cougars coach, goes up against his former team and, more interestingly, his nephew Danvers Seymour Jr, who is in his first season as the Trojans coach.

“Yeah, I played all my football in football in Somerset but now I coach Cougars and I’m for Cougars,” said Brown, a former Trojans captain and coach. Cougars are still in the title race despite some inconsistent performances this season as the other contenders have also slipped up.

“We’re still there, and like I said in December, the league is not finished until March,” said Brown.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries in the last month or so but the team is slowly getting back to full strength and this is where I think you are going to see some of our best football, when we really get back to full strength.”

Cougars were missing three regulars at St David’s last Sunday, with midfielder Philip Parsons returning to school overseas while forward Domico Coddington and defender Darius Cox were both injured and will also miss tonight’s match.

“We still have the numbers out in the [training] sessions, the enthusiasm is there and everybody knows what’s at stake tomorrow night,” said Brown.

“I’ll be up against friends, family and everybody else because I’ll be coaching against my nephew.”