When unbeaten First Division leaders Boulevard travel to St. John's Field tomorrow to take on Dandy Town for the right to go into the hat for the FA Cup semi-final draw, they will run into a team unrecognisable from the outfit against whom they contested the inner-city derbies of the Nineties.

As a team coached by Andrew Bascome, Town look to pass it about, which is no surprise, but the significant difference is the physical approach, epitomised by hard men Brendan O'Riordan and Kevin Hurdle in the centre of midfield.

On Wednesday night against Somerst Trojans, who have no shortage of big men themselves, O'Riordan and Hurdle made their presence felt almost immediately — O'Riordan, who was cautioned for persistent foul play after 15 minutes, put in a few crunching tackles and Hurdle left David Rahman writhing on the end of an inadvertent elbow.

The Blazers are a young team and coach, John Rebello, who watched the Friendship Trophy match, hope they withstand what is expected to be a bruising affair.

"We have no reason to be afraid," he said. "If anything, guys should be excited. The game of the day, you get to go out there and show people that you're capable of competing in the Premier Division.

"I know the importance of the game, I know that it's not going to be an ordinary game but I've got to let my players know that it is."

Rebello believes that their most recent league fixture, a 3-2 win away to Prospect, was ideal preparation for the FA Cup tie.

"We competed against Prospect, who have a lot of mature players that have played at the top level," he said. "My young warriors came through and that was great. It has been good that we haven't blown away teams in the last three games and that gets us ready for Sunday."

Rebello hinted that Boulevard have had to contend with constant changes to the starting line-up, for reasons ranging from injury to the pitfalls of "ghetto life". But it is the team's passion for the game that he hopes will make them competitive against a Town side, who are motivated to succeed after a quiet start in defence of the Premier Division title.

"We going through a transitional period now with younger players pushing for their time against the older ones," Rebello added. "Right now we're too young to play an entire young team in there. I think the mixture is good, especially when you have the young legs on the bench to come on and run.

"At the end of the day, the pressure has got to be on Dandy Town, they're the league champions. We'll give them a good run, no matter what the score is."

Melchisedec Gibbons, the former Devonshire Colts forward who has scored 18 goals, will lead the Boulevard line but they will be missing the brotherly midfield pairing of Jahmah and Jahmel Samuels, who are both injured.

A new combination in that area of the field is central to any success Boulevard may have, especially with Town having settled on a new approach.

Bascome, formerly a player and coach at Boulevard, expects his players to be tested. "They should have a lot of energy," he said. "They always have a lot of desire to play. That's the one thing I remember from when I was at Boulevard, they had a great passion for the game, so their intensity level should be up. That's going to be our biggest concern."

However, with Hurdle and O'Riordan in tandem, it is a battle they should have no problem meeting head-on.

While O'Riordan's intensity level is unsurprising, the gamble of using Hurdle as a converted midfield player, brings Bascome most satisfaction.

"When I first got at the club they said he was a striker and I looked at him in those areas," the coach said. "I wasn't too comfortable with him up there but I felt that with his size, his love for the game, and the fact that he's a good trainer, I had to find ways to make him useful so that he too could enjoy the game.

"After getting a little history on him I found that he had some experience of playing centre-half so I combined the two and took a look at him in midfield in pre-season games and he looked pretty comfortable there.

"If he continues to develop I think he can even be an asset to the country because he's a big presence."

What is perhaps most significant, is that Bascome is likely to play the same starting line-up twice for the first time this season — and that could spell bad news for Boulevard.