Kyle Lightbourne said Bermuda handled themselves well against French Guiana on Wednesday night in the Caribbean Cup second round and was confident of a good result before the match was abandoned after 41 minutes because of flooding.

Now the Bermuda assistant coach is urging the Bermuda fans to get behind the team when they play their second group match against Dominican Republic tonight at the National Stadium.

Lightbourne spoke to The Royal Gazette yesterday from the team’s hotel in Miami where the team was preparing for a flight home last night. The players had a gruelling day of travelling from South America on Thursday, with four stopovers before arriving in Florida around 10pm.

“We’re definitely hoping the stadium can be packed to cheer the boys on, they deserve it,” Lightbourne said. “The main thing is to get a result, it could make things easier for us when we go back to French Guiana.

“We travelled all day [on Thursday], left French Guiana just after 12 o’clock Bermuda time and didn’t arrive in Miami until close to 11pm Bermuda time,” Lightbourne said. “We were on the same Air France plane but had four stopovers.”

It is a trip the team will have to endure again in the next few weeks, with the Caribbean Football Union due to tell Bermuda on Monday when the rearranged game will take place. The five group winners and four best runners-up will advance to the next round, which starts in October.

“Obviously we’re very disappointed that we managed to get our noses in front and then for the game to be abandoned, which was the right choice,” Lightbourne said.

With Andrew Bascome, the Bermuda coach, unable to travel because of a virus, Lightbourne took charge of a Bermuda side who were 1-0 ahead thanks to Damon Ming’s eleventh minute goal when the rain came.

“It’s disappointing to say the least because the guys were following the game plan,” Lightbourne said. “They caused us a few problems but we managed to keep a clean sheet up until then.

“Maurice [Lowe] and I were talking about it and we said they [Dominican Republic] looked like they possibly could have scored, but we also looked like we would score another one. It was a game the boys were up for and were trying to see it out.

“As the game stayed 1-0 they were trying to throw men forward and with the pace that we have we were always liable to catch them on the break. They are a good team, passed the ball around well, and we knew that after playing them in Bermuda.”

The stadium was nearly full with about 3,000 spectators to cheer on their team.

“I looked at the forecast before leaving [the hotel] and it said there was going to be a lot of rain,” Lightbourne said. “The day before the match there was rain two or three hours before we went to train.

“On the day of the game it rained real hard in the morning and then eased off. The pitch was playable from the beginning, but once we had the downpour even the dugout was under water, coming up to our ankles.

“Maurice and I obviously wanted the game to continue. Just when it looked like we would get the game back on a heavy downpour came again and that was the end of it. The pitch was unplayable, the ball was floating on the water.”

Bermuda fielded several players who did not play against French Guiana a couple of months ago, with Quintonio Lema of BAA coming in at right back, while his BAA team-mate Willie Clemons also got a starting role.

“We went over with coach Bascome what we were looking to do in the away leg,” Lightbourne said. “We may tweak it for the home match, but we’ll wait to get back and speak to coach Bascome and give him our thoughts on what we saw in that half, and where we can probably be more offensive.

“We knew what team we were looking to play so we were on the same page.

“Everybody adjusted quite well and didn’t let things get to us. We realise why we are travelling and the importance of it, and it showed in our performance. We handled ourselves really well and we need to take it into the next game, with new opponents.”