Newly crowned league champions Shaheen will be going all out to win the double this season when they take on Valley A in a mouth-watering Holland Cup semi-final clash at King's Park today. In the other semi-final which will be played earlier at the same venue, Pakistan A meet Hong Kong Football Club A. Shaheen were crowned League champions on Tuesday when they won their final league game, defeating Football Club A 2-1. The victory sealed their progress in the men's First Division ranks. Now they are hungry for more success. 'We are definitely going for the double. The last time we achieved this was three seasons ago when we not only won the league and the Holland Cup, but also the Premier Cup,' said Shaheen's influential fullback Akbar Ali. The Premier Cup was not staged this season due to last October's Asian Games in South Korea creating a congested calendar. So Shaheen will have to be content with going for the double, a task which will not be easy with today's opponents, Valley, being no pushovers. 'They are a fit and well-organised team,' conceded Ali. 'It will be a tough game. All Cup games are a 50-50 game. Both sides have equal chances of winning. But we are confident that we can prevail. We have not lost against them this season so far, winning two and drawing one game.' Valley A are currently on a good run of form, having only lost one game in their last eight outings. They won their semi-final berth in the Cup after an easy 5-1 win over the Dutch followed by a nailbiting 3-2 extra-time victory over KCC A with Chris Pratt, their top goalscorer, scoring an excellent winning goal with only minutes to go before penalty strokes. 'But we will be the underdogs as we have still to beat them this season. It should be close and I feel it will boil down to the side that succeeds at short corners,' said Valley captain Atiff Gill. 'Our hopes will be pinned on our skilful forward from South Africa, Adrian Carolan, as well as the outstanding New Zealanders Hilton Munro in goal and Duncan Tillman in midfield,' added Gill. Last season's double-winning side Football Club are meanwhile hoping to make up for the loss of the league title and the disappointing midweek defeat to Shaheen by staying on course to retain the Cup. 'We hope to salvage something this season and we are in with a good shout of beating Pakistan Association,' Club skipper David Smyth said. 'Although we lost to Shaheen, we acquitted ourselves well. This season has been stop-start and I have noticed we play better when we have a few games continuously. The Shaheen game will help us.' Football Club have struggled this season with the loss of key players like the injured Tom Ayres. The Hong Kong national squad player is down with glandular fever and his absence has created a hole in midfield while the losses of Charles Purshouse, last year's skipper Eric Morris and Boyd Wilkins have hit the team. 'It has been a difficult season. The loss of a number of players has made a difference. But it is still not too late to win something,' said Smyth.
