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Strike ace Nusum eyes new record

Silence will be golden for national team striker John Barry Nusum who has vowed the keep the Cayman Islands crowd quiet by breaking Shaun Goater's goalscoring record in tomorrow's World Cup showdown.

Nusum requires two more goals to leapfrog Goater as Bermuda's most prolific marksman in World Cup qualifiers, and knows hitting the net is the only way to keep the 3,000 sell-out crowd silent.

"I like playing in front of big crowds but they certainly won't be cheering for us," said Nusum who will lead the line for the 'Gombey Warriors' at the Truman Boden Sports Complex.

"One of my old coaches used to always tell me that when you play away you must always silent the home crowd.

"That's when you know you're doing your job. I want to hear silence.

"I guess it would be as good a time as any to break Goater's record. To be honest I haven't really thought about it, but records are there to be broken."

With flying wingers on either flank in the form of Khano Smith and Domico Coddington, Nusum is confident he will be supplied with sufficient ammunition to shoot Cayman down.

"I haven't played together with Khano since the Digicel Cup, so it's been quite some time," said the Philadelphia Kixx sharpshooter who has nine goals in qualifiers. "Hopefully we'll both have a little fun out there.

"There should be plenty of service for me especially from Khano. If he's out on the left all I have to do is make runs into the box. He'll keep putting the dangerous balls in.

"As a striker that's all you want and when crosses are coming in, it makes your job a lot easier.

"With Domico (Coddington) on the right-hand side as well, it should be interesting.

"We should certainly cause them problems and right now we just want to attack them."

The former Wolves striker drew a blank in last month's disappointing draw in the first leg and is keen to make amends for his below par performance.

"We know we need to put on a better performance than we did in the first leg," said Nusum who arrived in Grand Cayman with the national team squad yesterday.

"Personally I was disappointed with my performance and I know a lot of the other guys feel the same way.

"Cayman have not seen the best of Bermuda and it's up to us to show them our best. Right now we just want to get at them.

"We need to put them on the back foot and get the right result."

One player hoping the picturesque Caribbean Island will prove more enjoyable than his last visit is diminutive winger Damon Ming.

The Bermuda Hogges franchise player made his international debut against Cayman around a decade ago, which saw Bermuda slump to defeat.