Two of the most famous names in Island football lost their First Division status yesterday as the league soccer season reached a dramatic climax.

PHC and Somerset Trojans, winners of 14 championships between them, lost their final games as Devonshire Cougars and Hotels won, the latter's superior goal difference consigning Trojans to Second Division football.

The results left PHC coach Cecil Robinson contemplating his future and rendered the usually loquacious Somerset boss Randy Horton almost speechless.

After his side had slumped to a 6-3 reverse at Southampton Rangers, Robinson, who took over the reins at PHC at the end of November after the side had suffered a disastrous start to the season, said: "At this point in time I don't know whether I'll be back.

"Since I took over we've started to improve. If we'd had more points earlier in the season, who knows. I've been in the Second Division before quite a number of times, so it doesn't bother me coaching at that level.

"It's really a question of whether I've got the time to coach. Even if we'd stayed up, that would still have been questionable. I think we start training in July so I'm going to take a couple of months off to think about it.'' Horton, for his part, was not up to answering questions about his long-term intentions. The Trojans boss, usually so animated on the sidelines, declined to talk after his side, fourth from bottom before the start and favourites to beat the drop, slipped to a 1-0 defeat against North Village at Bernard Park.

The desperately disappointed former Bermuda centre forward, who earlier in the season had maintained his team were too good to go down, said sadly: "I'm sorry, I don't feel up to talking right now.'' Trojans' demotion completes a roller coaster three years for the West End club. Relegated in 1995-96 under then boss Josef Gooden, they climbed straight back last season under Horton's guidance.

At BAA Field, meanwhile, where Hotels' 2-0 win over FA Cup finalists Devonshire Colts enabled them to climb above Trojans, there should have been contrasting scenes of unbridled joy.

But there weren't.

Coach Robert Calderon, who on Friday warned anything less than victory could mean the extinction of the club for a second time this decade, banned cellphones from the bench so none of his backroom staff could inform the side of scorelines elsewhere.

So effective was the news blackout, that one of their most influential players, midfielder Dennis Robinson, was forced to ring The Royal Gazette sports desk to check on the Somerset result an hour after the final whistle.

Robinson feared his team-mates might not have been telling him the whole truth when they informed him that Trojans had lost.

Marlon Lindsay, Hotels' former Wolves striker, however, was less cautious.

Lindsay, who missed a bellyfull of chances in Hotels' 2-1 defeat at Boulevard last Sunday, came good yesterday, grabbing both his side's goals in their victory.

He said afterwards: "We knew we could do it if we worked hard, stayed together and played as a team.'' Devonshire Cougars, who didn't win a match until after Christmas, secured their First Division place with a 2-1 victory over champions Vasco, who have now lost two in a row against lowly sides following a 23-match unbeaten run.

Coach Albert Smith, who took over from Josef Gooden midway through the campaign, was ecstatic.

"It felt like we won the league today,'' he said. "My players really put everything into this performance. We came to this game thinking about winning.

The players rallied to the call and it was sweet.

"They were motivated, they knew the task at hand, they fought well and deserved it.'' Referring to the side's appalling start to the season, he added: "It was a matter of getting the players to believe in themselves. We had a rough start, but our motto was that we were not going to lay down for anybody. We intended to make it hard for them all.'' CHAMPIONS -- Vasco goalkeeper and captain Timmy Figureido joins team-mates and supporters to show off the Coca Cola First Division trophy which was presented to them after their defeat by Devonshire Cougars yesterday.