Robin Hood enter the most important stage of their season this weekend when they meet St George’s Colts in an all-First Division clash in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup at Wellington Oval, a tie that guarantees one lower-league survivor in the last four.

Both clubs are chasing one of the two promotion places, with Hood holding a two-point lead over Devonshire Colts and St George’s with five matches remaining.

With matches to come against both teams in the coming weeks, Kyle Lightbourne, the Hood coach, admits there will be plenty to play for, starting with the cup-tie, in which victory would put them in the semi-finals for the second time.

Lightbourne helped PHC Zebras to prevent Hood from becoming the first Commercial League team to reach the final when he scored twice in a 3-0 semi-final win in 1991.

The next year he embarked on a professional career in England that took him to Scarborough, Walsall, Coventry City, Stoke City and Macclesfield Town, with loan spells at Fulham, Swindon Town, Cardiff City and Hull City.

“Some of the old Robin Hood players remind me of it,” said Lightbourne, who is hoping to engineer another good cup run by the club.

“That’s our aim, to have a good cup run, but St George’s are not going to be easy,” Lightbourne said. “We want to go as far as we can, to keep our season going.

“We’ve got a difficult month ahead of us, with games against Devonshire Colts and St George’s coming up. Everybody’s been on a good run when it comes to the league. All three of us have won every game in the second half of the season.”

Promotion is the priority of all three clubs, with Hood in the driver’s seat at the top of the standings, a position they have held since the early weeks of the season. Their only defeat in the league came last October when Boulevard beat them 3-1.

With only two points separating the top three teams, the promotion issue will be influenced by some key matches this month when Devonshire Colts host X-Roads and St George’s meet Boulevard next weekend, one of the teams to beat them in the league this season.

St George’s have possibly the toughest run-in, with matches against three of the top four teams, including Devonshire Colts in their final match.

Hood beat St George’s in their first league meeting, but Lightbourne expects things to be tougher at Wellington Oval on Sunday. “To me, it’s not a pressure game,” he said. “Yes, we want to do well and get to the next round, but we can be aggressive.

“We’ve got cup-ties in every game that we play from now to the end of the season, with every game getting bigger and bigger. Every game from here on in, we have to be up for it, without a doubt. We have to be clear on what we want to achieve.

“St George’s are at home and the onus is on them. We have played them once this season and beat them, so they’re going to be looking for revenge.

“[In the league] the top teams have to play one another and if we can avoid defeat, then we’re going to be there or thereabouts.

Lightbourne believes Hood could seal promotion by taking 11 points from their final five matches.

“Both of them [St George’s and Devonshire Colts] have to play X-Roads,” Lightbourne said. “We also have to play BAA, who I think are a good team. We can’t afford to drop points, especially when we play the teams around us.”

It was Hood who sealed the relegation fate of St George’s last March when they beat them 1-0 at Goose Gosling Field, although Hood joined them in the drop a couple of games later.

Now both teams are aiming for an immediate return to the top flight, with possibly an FA Cup semi-final spot, at least, for good measure.