League football action returns to the fore tonight with a top-of-the-table affair at Goose Gosling Field as second-placed Robin Hood entertain Premier Division leaders North Village.Nearing the halfway stage, Village have shone brightly under the tutelage of new head coach Kenny Thompson as one of two unbeaten clubs in the league, with 19 points after six wins and a draw from seven matches, displaying venom up front largely on account of skilful playmaking from Keishen Bean, but with much support from a talented bunch at Bernard Park.Bean will have need for aid from all his team-mates against a rampaging Hood, yet carrying a chip on their collective shoulders after falling victim to Dandy Town in the Dudley Eve Trophy final last month when heavily favoured.Since which, PHC, the league champions, have twice felt the backlash from John Barry Nusum’s humbled charges being twice thrashed by wide margins.“The confidence is high but to be honest, we talk about being a humble team, meaning that any team can be beaten and it was proved when we were humbled by Dandy Town back in the last cup final, and it was a moment that we needed to show the need for us to humble ourselves and be prepared to show up for work each day properly prepared,” Nusum said.“It’s just like any other game; we’re trying to get maximum points out of it and put out our best performance and see what happens.”Possessing a squad with great depth, on occasion seeing fit to have the likes of Antwan Russell on the bench along with talents such as Shaki Smith and Justin Corday, while also hosting a trio of national team members led by the likes of striker Lejaun Simmons Hood have been hard to handle, particularly of late. According to Nusum, the squad is fully healthy after their Friendship Trophy quarter-final victory last weekend and anxious to do well as they enter what promises a busy period heading into Christmas.“Everybody came out of the game healthy, so for us it may be more of a case of us being ready to go because we have a few quick games in succession,” he said.“Most players want to play the games. Rest is cool, but players want to play games and it might be a case of a few games in a row because we have to do some cup games, plus the semi-finals of the Shield, so, to be honest, most of the players on the team are looking forward to playing.“Certainly we have a good bit of depth and we can utilise it, but we’ll be putting our best team out there for the occasion of the day.“Right now, we don’t have any lingering injuries that are plaguing us; that has helped us so far in the season; we don’t expect it to go like that but, like I said, the players want to play games, so we’re looking forward to the coming weeks and the amount of fixtures that we could have.”Nevertheless, any success earned against Village will likely be hard earned, as they are rested and raring to go and rectify the blemish sustained in a surprise defeat at home against X-Roads that ended their Friendship Trophy bid at the opening hurdle.Although Thompson is off island and unavailable to guide his men, they are left in the capable hands of former club and country stalwart Randy Spence.“We simply have to pull our socks up, pick back up, and we’re definitely not going to take Hood for granted,” said Spence, who coached Village last season.“We will play the way we know how to play and produce attractive football.“If you want to remain on top of the table, this is a must-win situation or even a draw as a worst-case scenario.“Since being knocked out of the Friendship, we want to come off the Christmas period in as good a shape as possible to make bids for the two cups [the league and FA Cup] remaining, so we definitely want to stay in the hunt for both.”Unlike Hood, Village have a few players out with injuries, but, like Hood, Spence explained that the squad is deep and player resources will be maximised.“Keishen’s playing but we won’t have Jason Lee who’s still dealing with a knock. Jason has played just one game against [Somerset] Eagles and since then we haven’t had the privilege of having him out,” Spence added. “We have a few injuries, but we have a full squad and everybody will be used and on that I would like to express appreciation to the players for their dedication.”