Lady Cougars and North Village Lady Rams renew their rivalry tonight in the Women's Charity Cup at BAA with early season bragging rights at stake.

This season's first clash pits the powerhouses of the women's game against each other with Cougars and Rams claiming all of the silverware that was on offer last term.

Rams won the league by the narrowest of margins and will be quietly confident that they will once again have the upper hand over their opponents.

But Lady Cougars possess a side with more than enough firepower in their artillery and will be looking for redemption after losing a crucial game to their opponents during the latter stages of the last campaign, which saw the title slip from their grasp.

Cougars skipper Arkeita Smith said she believed her team were ready to make a sustained assault on the title after being pipped to the post by Rams last season.

"Our training has been going along really well," said Smith. "Quite a few of our players trained with the national squad.

"Last season we had some very hard-fought games against Village and they took the league from us towards the end so it will be nice get them back.

"But the main focus is to stick to our game plan.

"We are not focusing on them as much as getting ourselves ready for the start of the season. We know that in order to get the league back we will have to work extremely.

"We are not quite as fit as we would like to be but this will let us know how far along we are in our preparations.

"We have never lost the Charity Cup so we will be looking to hold onto it again this year."

The match kicks off at 6 p.m.