It?s a good three weeks late, but the football season will finally kick off this Saturday with North Village taking on Dandy Town in the Charity Cup.

The delayed start to the new campaign ? caused by a variety of problems including the unavailability of fields due to a late-running cricket season ? means the first silverware on offer this season will be chased while seven players are away on national team duty in the US Virgin Islands.

Dwayne (Streaker) Adams? North Village, who swept all before them last year in claiming the Triple Crown, are without five players for the clash, with Keith, Kentoine and Jemeiko Jennings as well as Devaun DeGraff and Keishen Bean away with the national side.

Town will be without Dennis Zuill and Michael Parsons, who are also in Kyle Lightbourne?s squad who jetted off yesterday morning for Digicel Cup duty.

Village are expecting a tough start to their year, knowing Town are going to give them a rough time as they search for their opening trophy of the season.

?People always want to beat Village,? said Adams, a former national team goalkeeper who was rightly voted coach of the year after claiming so many trophies in his first season on the sidelines.

?They always get their game up for Village and now it is going to be worse. It was a tough year for us last time and teams are going to be going after us even more this time ? they will have that extra fire in them.

?So it is up to us how we react. We made history last year by winning those trophies and now we have two choices: we either go out there and win them all again, or we give them up.

?We achieved a lot last year but that was then and this is now and it is up to us to do it all over again from scratch. Last season means nothing ? we are in the here and now.?

While some teams have gone on mini overseas tours for their pre-season, Village have chosen to remain in Bermuda, playing warm-up games against Premier and Commercial opposition, testing out new players in new positions. Damon Wade has retired while Tyrell Burgess is away at school and Bean is set to follow in January.

Although more than half the side that play on Saturday will be different from the Reds? last outing, Adams is happy that the make-up of the team will not be that different once the international players are back.

?There is always going to be some player turnover,? continued Adams, who will once again be assisted by Maceo Dill this season.

?But we have the nucleus of the squad unchanged and we have some promising youngsters coming through to fill the gaps, so I am not too concerned.

?It is up to the players how they are going to respond to the new season but I think we have the sort of team that is going to take responsibility and go out there and do everything they can to have another successful season.?

And will Adams himself be out on the field, reliving his former goalkeeping heroics?

?I have been doing some of the pre-season training,? he added.

?And if we have injuries then I will be prepared to play if I am needed, but it would be fair to say that I have no intentions of doing so and would rather spend the season as a coach.?

The Charity Cup is at 8 p.m. on Saturday while at 6 p.m. Lady Cougars take on Lady Rams in the women?s season-opener.

League action begins on Sunday with two Premier Division fixtures ? newly-promoted St. David?s taking on Somerset Trojans while Division One champions Paget play PHC ? and a full slate of First Division games.