With Fijian champions Ba winning O-League Group B all eyes will turn to the struggling Marist FC as they carry the hopes of the Solomon Islands as their O-League future hangs by a thread in the group’s final match.

Marist FC may be out of the running for a 2007 O-League Finals berth but if they fail to secure some sort of result against AS Temanava today they could find themselves battling it out at the O-League Preliminary tournament in the Cook Islands next May.

The stakes could not be higher for Solomon Island champions Marist FC who drew a massive 17,000 crowd in their first match against Ba in Honiara. But Marist FC can take some comfort in the plight of Group A rivals and fellow cellar dwellers AS Mont Dore.

Both Marist FC and AS Mont Dore have lost all three of their O-League fixtures and survival for next season’s edition may come down to which team has the best `worst’ playing record.

The team that finishes 6th in this season’s edition of the O-League will be replaced by the winner of an O-League qualifying competition involving this season’s sixth-placed club and one club each from the Cook Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea scheduled for the Cook Islands in May (2007).

AS Mont Dore has endured a more testing challenge than their Melanesian rivals after being drawn in the O-League `Group of Death’ alongside Auckland City and Waitakere United. A 6-1 and a 4-0 thumping by both Kiwi teams for the New Caledonians means Marist FC have some leeway but won’t want to tempt fate by turning in a flat performance like the one they gave against O-League finalists Ba at Lawson Tama Stadium.

Ticket sales for the final fixture in O-League Group B have been steady but the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) has urged locals to get in early to avoid disappointment with the AS Temanava game looming as possibly the biggest club game in the Solomon Islands recent football history.

Deflated Tahitian champions AS Temanava will not be without their problems after being eliminated from O-League contention by Ba on Tuesday night. AS Temanava coach Bernard Vahirua – father of Nice striker Marama Vahirua who plays in the French Ligue 1 – will try to lift his team after their morale-busting defeat against the Fijian champions.

Vahirua will try to remind his players they still have plenty to play for in the Tahitienne Championnat de Football Federale Playoff Series where AS Temanava currently sit on top of the competition after two rounds of the playoff section.