Winning the Premier Division is the main priority for North Village, skipper Sammy DeGraff said yesterday, and he has urged his team to use the Dudley Eve as preparation for their assault on the league title.

The Rams are the defending champions of the curtain raiser competition and DeGraff wants them to use their opening match against Somerset Eagles on Sunday as a stepping-stone for bigger and better things this season.

"It's the start of the season so we really want to put out best foot forward and get off to a good start," said DeGraff. "We're the champions so obviously we want to defend our title and playing Eagles, a team that's lost a few players will be interesting, but we won't take them lightly.

"They have some good young players up there, so it will be a good test to see where we are with our preparations for the league and we're just looking forward to getting out there really.

"I don't know if we are setting out to win the Dudley Eve, but the main concern is the league but to win something is always good.

"We're the champions so we don't want to give it up easy."

The Bernard Park club can look to the second half of last season for momentum as they turned around their fortunes and were a single point away from winning the league, while also making a sustained run in the FA Cup and winning the Friendship.

Although winning the league is the club's main priority, DeGraff did admit that winning the Dudley Eve for a second successive season would be a morale booster.

Village then take on Eagles again in their opening league match of the new campaign on Sunday, October 3.

"We want to come out and build off what we did last year," he said. "We made good runs in the cup competitions and were close in the league so this year we want to go a little further.

"This term we have set out rules on what we want to get done and we will take it one game at a time and try to get off to a good start.

"The first tournament of the season is usually the hardest one, so we will look to get a result in the first game and continue from there.

"If we do win it for the second year running, it will be a good morale booster for the team, so we will be looking to go out and make a good account of ourselves."

Village and Eagles' match kicks off at 1 p.m. on Sunday, followed by PHC and Boulevard at 3 p.m. Both games will be held at BAA Field.