Cham­pi­on Fa­ti­ma Col­lege will be hop­ing to build on their Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) Su­per Cup tri­umph over St Bene­dict’s Col­lege when they trav­el to To­ba­go to take on Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary in Scar­bor­ough from 3.30 pm Wednes­day af­ter­noon in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion of the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL).

De­spite an un­ex­pect­ed change of coach at the end of the 2024 sea­son, cou­pled with the loss of more than half their play­ers, Fa­ti­ma’s foot­ball pro­gramme got a wel­come jolt at the start of last week when they de­feat­ed St Bene­dict’s Col­lege 4-2 in a penal­ty shoot-out, af­ter the teams were in­sep­a­ra­ble 0-0 at the end of reg­u­la­tion time.

As­sis­tant coach and man­ag­er Stephen Williams is ex­cit­ed for his charges, most of whom re­ceived their de­but per­for­mance in the St Bene­dict’s match.

“I am re­al­ly proud of the boys, most of whom came up through the school’s Un­der-16 pro­gramme. Four­teen of them made their de­but last week, so right now they are self-mo­ti­vat­ed and ready to play. The on­ly thing is that I would have liked them to score in that match, so hope­ful­ly we will start to score from to­day,” Williams told Guardian Me­dia Sports when con­tact­ed yes­ter­day.

Fa­ti­ma claimed the 2024 NGC Su­per Cup, the North Zone In­ter­col, and the Pre­mier­ship ti­tle, all un­der the then coach Hut­son “Bar­ber” Charles, the for­mer Strike Squad mid­field­er, but Williams is keep­ing a close eye on their op­po­nent, who, in ad­di­tion to their re­cent pro­mo­tion to the pre­mier­ship, pulled off a hard-fought 3-3 tie against Ari­ma North Sec­ondary School on Sat­ur­day.

“We know they were just pro­mot­ed and were able to get a re­sult in their last match, but we will be go­ing in­to the match look­ing for a win,” Williams said.

Af­ter a 3-3 tie against Ari­ma, Scar­bor­ough coach Hay­den Ryan, who made a name with Shi­va Boys Hin­du Col­lege in 2016, 2017, and 2018 by claim­ing the U-16 na­tion­al ti­tle (2016), the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion ti­tle in 2017, and the na­tion­al In­ter­col ti­tle in 2018, as­sured that he will be com­ing to play his game against the Mu­cu­rapo Road lads this af­ter­noon.

“My team is a new one, but I per­son­al­ly be­lieve that once we get it right on the field of play, we can beat any­body. We are a team la­belled as un­der­dogs, and I heard peo­ple say­ing that Scar­bor­ough will be back in the Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion with­out win­ning a match. Well, I am not study­ing that be­cause it takes a lot to get a point out of Ari­ma North, which has been one of the sol­id teams in the League for the past two years. So that should tell you some­thing about my team,” Ryan said.

Ryan did not say what ap­proach he would take against the Mu­cu­rapo Road-based team but as­sured that af­ter some 10 min­utes in the game, he would give out the right in­struc­tions to en­sure his team wins the match.

Na­pari­ma Col­lege will go af­ter its sec­ond win of the sea­son when it faces Ari­ma North at the Ari­ma Velo­drome, and Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege will get its cam­paign off with a clash against Trin­i­ty Col­lege East at the Man­ny Ramjoghn Sta­di­um. All match­es to­day be­gin at 3.30 pm.

Wednes­day’s match­es

Scar­bor­ough Sec vs Fa­ti­ma Col­lege, Scar­bor­ough Ground, 3.30 pm

St Mary’s Col­lege vs Cara­pichaima Sec, CIC Ground, 3.30 pm

Sig­nal Hill Sec vs Trin­i­ty Col­lege, Sig­nal Hill Ground, 3.30 pm

St Bene­dict’s Col­lege vs QRC, Ma­haica Oval, 3.30 pm

St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege vs Mal­ick Sec, St An­tho­ny’s Ground, 3.30 pm

San Juan North Sec vs St Au­gus­tine Sec, San Juan Ground, 3.30 pm

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege vs Trin­i­ty Col­lege East, Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, 3.30 pm

Ari­ma North Sec vs Na­pari­ma Col­lege, Ari­ma Velo­drome, 3.30 pm