WHEN asked if he had high hopes of victory against St. Kitts and Nevis next month in what will be his first match as the new Bermuda head coach, Keith Tucker was quick to emphasis that this was not "his" team but rather "our" team.

Tucker said: "We have had 25 out for training and then there are the kids from overseas. They all want to put the Bermuda shirt on."

And he hopes the public will come out and support the team when they take on St. Kitts at the National Sports Centre in two friendlies on December 14 and 16. These two matches will be the first of a "number" of friendlies before Bermuda take on the Cayman Islands in the opening match in qualifying for the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa.

"We are a soccer family and we will be judged against another soccer family (St. Kitts). That is how this game all started. Come out and support the team and get a Bermuda shirt on," said Tucker.

Although Bermuda's senior national team have not had a international match since being beaten by Canada back in March this year, Tucker said he was not worried about the big gap.

He said: "What the Hogges and Under 23 programme gave us was a beautiful start. Now we will wait for the college kids to come back. The attitude of the players is incredible. They can't wait . . . and they know how to play.

"Most of the guys have had a great experience with the Hogges and most of the players in the Hogges are national team players so it is not like they have been sitting back."

St. Kitts are ranked 159 by FIFA while Bermuda are ranked 138.

St. Kitts will be hoping for a repeat of their performance which they put in ahead of Germany 2006 when they stunned the region to reach the second qualifying group stage alongside CONCACAF's top dogs.

They beat the US Virgin Islands 11-0 over two legs. After that they earned an impressive victory over an experienced Barbados outfit by an aggregate of 5-2. Then they had a 2-1 loss at home to Caribbean powerhouse Trinidad who ended up going to Germany for the World Cup. Following that they had another slim loss, 1-0 to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and then finished with four more defeats - 5-1 to Trinidad, 3-0 to St. Vincent and 5-0 and 8-0 to mighty Mexico.