North Village have a great opportunity to move level on points with PHC when they face Devonshire Cougars at Devonshire Rec tonight.

Village, whose head coach Kenny Thompson has been absent from the touchline in recent weeks, have been on a fine run, winning their past three matches. Thompson was last in charge on October 6 when the Rams defeated Dandy Town 1-0 at Goose Gosling Field.

Efforts to get a comment from Village president Shervin Dill on the Thompson situation have been unsuccessful in recent days.

Village assistant coach Calvin “Patches” Dill Jr, formerly with St George’s Colts, has taken charge of the team recently and presided over two big wins, with his side scoring eight times and conceding only once. The victories came at Wellington Oval, where Village defeated St George’s 3-1 and Hamilton Parish 5-0.

With those victories, Village have moved to second in the standings with nine points, three points behind the unbeaten PHC.

Jonté Smith and Jai Bean have been instrumental for Village, with three goals each from as many matches. Smith scored in the encounters against Town, St George’s and Parish, while Bean has three strikes from the last two fixtures.

Bean has not stopped scoring from the time he twice came off the bench to notch goals for Bermuda in the Concacaf Nations League against Dominica at the Flora Duffy Stadium. His form should cause headaches for the Cougars defence.

The Village strikers have benefited from the hard work of London Steede-Jackson, Tre Ming, Amir Dill and Seke Spence. Detre Bell has conceded one goal in two matches since his return from suspension, with Liam Evans, Rai Sampson, Jayce Basden and Khimo Harrison solid in guarding his goal.

Cougars head into the match having lost 2-0 to PHC, the league’s early pace setters. It was the second defeat of the season for Kwame Steede’s side. Before the loss to PHC, Cougars picked a 4-1 victory over Paget Lions. It is the sort of performance that Steede will be expecting from his players when square off with Village at The Den.

Captain Zeko White will rally his side from the heart of defence, with Domico Coddington, Elisha Darrell and Kamali Davis expected to cause trouble for the Village backline.

In the other match scheduled for this afternoon, St George’s have a chance to end their two-match winless streak when they meet Wolves. After losing to Village, the East Enders drew 2-2 with Paget, with this a perfect opportunity to secure three points.

St George’s square off with a Wolves side that are yet to win in four matches. Marcelo Thomas has seen his team lose three and draw one, leaving them second from bottom in the standings with just a point.

Last Sunday, Wolves fought from three goals down to force a 3-3 draw against Devonshire Colts. It should be the same fighting spirit that Thomas should be expecting his players to display at Wellington Oval.

PHC go out searching for their fifth win on the spin when they clash with Devonshire Colts at Police Field. The defending champions are yet to drop points since the start of the season, with Quincy Hunt’s side the only team with a 100 per cent winning record.

Paget and Young Men’s Social Club, who met in Wednesday’s Dudley Eve Trophy semi-final at PHC Field, a fixture won 3-1 by the former, with points at stake this time around. Wednesday saw Hamilton Parish put their wobbling start to the league by beating Devonshire Colts to book a spot in the Dudley Eve Trophy final.

Parish head into their match against Dandy Town hunting for their first points of the campaign. With no points collected from their opening four matches, Sergio Goater is under pressure to get off the bottom of the table.

Parish meet a Town side that has picked up four points from a possible six. Kyle Lightbourne’s team recovered from their loss to Village to beat Devonshire Colts, before they drew with Social Club.

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