WE ALL know the cliché about doing it at Stoke on a Tuesday night.

But for Dan Neville, doing it on the Caribbean island of Martinique on a Tuesday night would do just fine for now.

Neville, who is from Bournemouth, has been assistant manager of the British Virgin Islands since March and is tomorrow poised to preside over the British Overseas Territory’s second clash of the CONCACAF Nations League campaign in Fort-de-France.

As Saturday’s 5-0 defeat to Suriname suggests, BVI are minnows in international football. They are ranked 203rd in the world, below the likes of Djibouti, Samoa and Guam. Their manager, John Reilly, is head of football and athletics at a school on the main island.

It was as recently as 2012 that BVI suffered a 16-0 shellacking at the hands of Martinique. Neville, who coached in the Cherries academy for seven years, has it all on.

He told the Daily Echo: “Martinique is going to be a really tough game and, probably, nobody outside the walls of our dressing room will believe we can get anything.

“It’s important that we have our own game and play to our strengths. If we can be organised, who knows?

“There will be a huge crowd there and we want to give a very good account of ourselves. It will be a very proud moment.”

Neville is the founder of Champion Sports and has used his connections locally to recruit a number of youngsters for the BVI cause.

Josh Bertie from Christchurch, Charles Medway from Poole and Jamie Wilson from Muscliffe started in the defeat to Suriname, while Weymouth’s Bailey Rowe came on as a second-half substitute for Medway. All are eligible to feature as they hold British passports.

They are not the only Dorset links. The president of the BVI Football Association, Andy Bickerton, is originally from Bournemouth.

Neville, a matter of months younger than Cherries boss Eddie Howe, built his credentials during a stint at the club’s academy.

He said: “It was the time when we had absolutely no money but we somehow produced Sam Vokes, Danny Ings and loads of others who have gone on to have really good semi-pro careers.

“I was quite fortunate to work alongside Eddie for a good few months and you can’t fail to pick things up off him.

“I worked with Mark Molesley and Stephen Purches and they are excellent as well. What Mark is achieving at Weymouth doesn’t surprise me and I know Stephen is integral to the first-team coaching staff at Bournemouth.”

But what of the long-term future for Neville and the BVI, which has a population of around 30,000.

Neville said: “As a coach, naturally you want to play the long game and work with the youth.

“I believe if we can be diligent in our work, be organised and get people to buy in, then we can climb the rankings quite quickly.

“We have a 10-year plan and a one-year contract but that’s always the way in football. Hopefully, we can do enough to justify our involvement.”