Hockey: Confident Cala eye giant-killing against cup holders Kelburne

Neil Allan, Cala's coach, may be wearing the underdog label but his charges are certainly not going into the tie lying down. "On our day we are confident of giving any team in the land a game, obviously Kelburne are firm favourites and are on course for their seventh consecutive league title. We will therefore give them due respect, but we will definitely be going out to win the game."

The pressure is definitely on the Paisley outfit and manager Harry Coles is taking nothing for granted. "We are well aware that Cala have scored over 100 goals in their league campaign to date and knocked Dundee Wanderers and Grange out of the cup. They have several forward players who can worry the best of defences, so there can be no excuses on our part should we fail," remarked Coles.

Sentiment will ally itself to Cala, but it would be a major upset if the holders did not cruise into the final.

The other semi-final tie brings together Grove Menzieshill and Western Wildcats, both sides separated by a single point in the top half of the First Division. There is a lack of predictability about this one, both sides have had high and low points during the course of this season. The results between the sides are not helpful, the Wildcats purred to a 5-2 win in the opener, but recently the Taysiders recorded a 4-2 victory.

The women's semi-finals look fairly clear-cut on paper, VWS Dundee Wanderers should dispose of GHK from the Second Division while all-conquering Grove Menzieshill look to have too much firepower for traditional rivals Milne Craig Western.

Despite losing five points in recent encounters with Subway national league leaders Glynhill Kelburne, Grange captain Rob Barr always maintained that the race for the championship was far from over, and now his prophecy has come a bit closer to reality. Kelburne's shock 1-0 defeat at the hands of Menzieshill last weekend has put the contest back into the melting pot, now the Paisley side have only a two-point lead over Grange with four games remaining for both sides.

Barr's message to his charges has been consistent, Grange must keep on winning and hope that Kelburne slip up again. In this scenario, Menzieshill and Western Wildcats could be the kingmakers as Grange and Kelburne have still to play both before this year's champions emerge.

But Barr has still to negotiate this weekend's double header hurdle, today Grange entertain bottom side Aberdeen Asset Management and tomorrow they travel to Titwood to take on Greaves Clydesdale in a catch-up fixture."We have struggled against Clydesdale in the past and we know it will be a tough game, but our squad is getting stronger and crucially in recent weeks we have learned how to get results even when we are not playing well," said Barr.

"If we play to our potential, we will be looking to control the game and take the three points."