Kingston College (KC) and defending Manning Cup champions, St George's College, will renew their annual pre-season football rivalry today for the Roper Cup, at Stadium East field, starting at 4 p.m.

The match will be preceded by four others, the first of which begins at nine o'clock.

The under-14 teams of both schools face off then, while the under-16 teams will meet at 10:30 a.m.

The aggregate scores from both matches will determine the winners of the George Thompson Cup, which was shared by both teams last year.

The under-35 match is set to start at noon. This will be followed by a celebrity shoot-out and the presentation of an award to St George's old boy, Clive Chambers.

This will precede the lone match for the Pancho Rankine Cup, to be contested between old boys of both schools, age 35 and over, at 2:45 p.m.

"KC-St George's is usually a big game, whether it is Roper Cup or Manning Cup," said Neville 'Bertis' Bell, coach of St St George's College.

"We also use the Roper Cup as part of our preparation for the Manning Cup. We take it seriously because bragging rights are involved and we try to put out as best a team as we can," Bell said.

He added that despite the loss of his two top strikers, Shamar Shelton and Kemal Malcolm, the team remained competitive.

"A lot of them from last year have remained, but we have lost forwards Kemal Malcolm, who scored 25 goals for us, and Shamar Shelton, who got 15," he said.

Bell also confirmed that former KC top scorer, McKauley 'Jimmy' Tulloch, had left KC to join St George's College.

"He started to train with us last week Saturday, but he will not play on Saturday (today) as he had an operation recently and is recovering," Bell pointed out.

Bell's counterpart, Wayne Fairclough, said he was confident about his team's chances.

"You can expect some good football from us on Saturday," Fairclough said.

"We will not be hiding players like some schools. We will be rolling out our best team and we will be trying to salvage some lost pride," Fairclough said.

He noted that he had retained 75 per cent of his membership from last year's group, including five members of the Jamaica Under-17 squad.

"We have a more experienced group of players now. They are motivated to go up against St George's and they have a point to prove, as they were expected to do better than they did last year," said Fairclough.