Somerset Eagles striker Shakir Smith is adamant that the long lay-off between games for his side won't be a disadvantage as his men play for their Dudley Eve lives tonight against North Village at Somerset Cricket Club.

The match was scheduled to be played last week. However, with Eagles having a host of youngsters in their ranks who were in action for Bermuda in the Under-20 World Cup qualifying stages, the game was postponed.

Tonight's match will end the group stage of the Dudley Eve with Group A already sorted out.

Group B leaders Village are automatically through to the next round after their 1-0 win over Devonshire Cougars in their opening match, while Eagles only need a point to go join Rams after they drew with the Big Cats 1-1.

With Eagles currently level on points with Cougars, anything but a loss will see the West End team go through with Village, while a win would see them top the group.

A loss by two or more goals will see them eliminated with Village winners of the group and Cougars in second place, while a loss by a single goal will see the two teams level on everything – points and goals.

"We have been training hard, overloading our legs given we haven't played in a little while, and working on our finishing because that is one of our main problems," said Smith.

"We are really hungry. We haven't played and that isn't a disadvantage at all. We have watched some games and wanted that to be us but we are focused on the task at hand.

"It is important to get a result because it is early in the season and to still be in the hunt for silverware early on is a bonus. We seem to have been a down a little bit with things not really going our way in the league.

"We also have a young team and to go through to the next round to compete for honours with the team we have can do nothing but motivate us more to succeed.

"If we can get a bit of consistency and work on our defending a bit more, we will be more competitive and perhaps go further in the remaining cup competitions."

In Group A, PHC qualified with their last-gasp winner last week over Dandy Town 4-3.

The win secured their passage through as the group runners-up, while Town were confirmed winners of the group because of a better goal difference.

Their 3-0 win over Boulevard was vital, with Blazers beating PHC 3-2 giving them the upper hand.