Dear Sir,

Please allow me some space in your newspaper to commend (President) Larry Mussenden and the Bermuda Football Association for bringing in the Barbados national team. This has provided much needed international competition for our players as well as great entertainment for football fans.

The Barbados squad is a very fit and well-drilled unit containing some good players. Having recently beat Jamaica 1-0 and held Finland to a 1-1 draw they are obviously further down the road in terms of preparation for their World Cup qualifiers than our boys who have been dormant for some time now.

Both matches held thus far have been entertaining; though I must say I was disappointed with the performance by Dandy Town who I thought would have made a stronger showing.

The first match was an exciting one, which I thought we should have won by at least a couple of goals.

In the end it was poor finishing and a goalkeeping error, which cost us. Having said that I believe Bermuda was the superior side and have no doubt that come New Year?s Day we will beat the Bajans handily.

There are two reasons I say this, one, generally speaking our boys possess better ball skills than their opponents and, two, I don?t believe our players will make the same mistakes they made in the first match. Don?t get me wrong, I am not underestimating Barbados as I have already stated they are a good team but I think Bermuda are better.

Finally, I would like to conclude by saying that I believe Youth Technical Director and senior national coach Kenny Thompson is doing an outstanding job and deserves our total support, but he cannot do it alone. We desperately need a senior Technical Director from overseas to provide guidance and take responsibility for the overall direction in which football in the island is going. Preferably someone of the calibre of former technical director Burkhard Ziese. I would suggest that Mr. Mussenden, (General Secretary) Mr. (David) Sabir and the BFA take this under serious consideration.