One of the showpiece events of the Manx football calendar, the Railway Cup final, takes centre stage at the Bowl on Boxing Day.

The traditional Yuletide contest will see reigning Premier League champions Peel go head-to-head with top-flight leaders Corinthians in the Manx Car Store-sponsored showdown.

The match will be a repeat of their league meeting only 10 days ago when the westerners stunned the Whites with a shock 5-0 win at Ballafletcher.

But Corinthians bounced back from that first defeat of the season by getting past Onchan in the pair’s rescheduled Railway Cup semi-final last Wednesday evening.

That 4-1 win over the Os restored some of the Whites’ confidence heading into Thursday’s final at the national stadium, as manager Ben Qualtrough said post-game: ‘I’m very happy with that – the lads were excellent. Obviously Saturday [against Peel] was horrible, we needed a good response, and the lads have knuckled down and done a good job today.

‘Boxing Day is just what we needed after last week – it should be a good game on this pitch.’

Peel captain Matthew Woods says his side are also in a confident mood heading into the match: ‘As a team we are feeling confident going into the final. We’re close to full strength, with only a couple of long-term absentees such as Andrew Crennell.

‘Our previous game against Corinthians was of course a convincing win, but conditions on Boxing Day I’m sure will be very different to Ballafletcher. We’re focussing on what’s ahead and not looking back - we just want to keep our momentum going and we can do that by ensuring that we work hard for each other on and off the ball. We will treat the game as any other game.

‘Our younger players in the team have really stepped up this season, and it’s great for Kenny [manager Pete Kennaugh] to have selection headaches for the first time in a while.

‘We look forward to the game and of course, the support from the Peel fans.’

Kick-off at the Bowl on Boxing Day is 2pm - a full report will appear in next week’s joint edition of the Isle of Man Examiner/Manx Independent.