Nigel Si­mon

De­fence Force and FC South End will start as favourites to se­cure the two re­main­ing quar­ter­fi­nal places in this year's T&T Pro League First Cit­i­zens Cup com­pe­ti­tion when the qual­i­fy­ing round takes place to­day.

In the first match of tonight's dou­ble-head­er, De­fence Force will face To­ba­go Unit­ed from 5 pm, while two hours lat­er, South End bat­tles St Ann's Rangers. De­fence Force and South End are fan­cied to come away vic­to­ri­ous, but To­ba­go and Rangers can­not be tak­en for grant­ed. They hope to make amends for a dis­ap­point­ing league cam­paign.

In their lone meet­ing this sea­son, De­fence Force and To­ba­go Unit­ed drew goal­less and this time around the Teteron Boys will be hop­ing the strike duo, De­von Jorsling and Kevon Carter, walk with their scor­ing boots. To­ba­go, mean­while, will bank on the vet­er­an Guyana's Col­lie Her­cules and for­mer na­tion­al de­fend­er, Dwayne Jack, to see them through. To­ba­go booked its spot with a 3-1 win over Po­lice in the lone qual­i­fi­er, con­test­ed be­tween the bot­tom two clubs on the league ta­ble as of Round Two Match Day Nine last week. South End play­er/ coach, for­mer na­tion­al play­er An­tho­ny Rougi­er has been on tar­get in re­cent weeks and against the in­con­sis­tent Rangers line-up which was de­feat­ed 2-0 in the League. He may be called up­on again to be the de­cid­ing fac­tor.

Rangers coach An­tho­ny Streete will look to the ex­pe­ri­enced mid­field­er Adri­an Nar­ine along with Corneal Thomas, Josi­mar Bel­grave and Eli­jah Joseph to pro­vide some much need­ed spark. The top six clubs at the end of Round Two of Match Day Nine on the league ta­ble, bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic, Cale­do­nia AIA of Mor­vant/Laven­tille, Cli­co San Juan Jabloteh, W Con­nec­tion and Ma Pau were all giv­en au­to­mat­ic quar­ter­fi­nal places.

In the quar­ter­fi­nals card­ed for Sep­tem­ber 18, Joe Pub­lic, beat­en in the fi­nal last year by W Con­nec­tion, will meet the win­ner on the qual­i­fy­ing-round clash be­tween Rangers and South End while Cale­do­nia faces the win­ner of the De­fence Force To­ba­go Unit­ed en­counter. In the two oth­er match­es, Jabloteh comes up against Petrotrin and First Cit­i­zens Cup hold­ers, W Con­nec­tion will be­gin de­fence against Ma Pau.

To­day

Ato Boldon Sta­di­um,

De­fence Force vs To­ba­go Unit­ed, 5 pm.

St Ann's Rangers vs FC South End, 7 pm.