Don?t expect another flood of goals when Bermuda take to the pitch against the wounded warriors of Montserrat in an almost meaningless second leg World Cup qualifying match tomorrow.

Crushed 13-0 in the first leg at the National Sports Centre just three weeks ago, the Montserratians are desperate to restore pride while on the other hand Bermuda have nothing to prove.

Which team advance to meet El Salvador in the next CONCACAF qualifying round is virtually beyond question.

And coach Kenny Thompson freely admits that scoring another bucketful of goals is not his main objective.

?It?s not realistic to think we?re going to score ten goals. And there?s no pressure on the players to outdo their performance in the first leg,? explained Thompson.

?It?s very difficult to think about the things we should concentrate on ? being already 13-0 up. What I have been stressing to the players is that it?s important to not so much look beyond this match but to at least start preparing for El Salvador.

?So, we?re starting to build and think about what will be a very, very, difficult match against El Salvador.

?In our last practice match the day before we left we concentrated on controlling the game by using as little energy as possible and the idea behind that was to help the the players who still have some commitment to their clubs, some important championship games and relegation issues that are still to be settled.

?There are a lot of matches coming up at club level in the next two weeks. So on one hand we want to get a good result here, but on the other hand we would like to get it by using as minimal resources as possible.?

Although tomorrow?s game might be looked upon as slightly more than another training match, the coach concedes that, with such a huge advantage, he will have the luxury of being able to experiment.

?We want the players to learn how to control the tempo of a match and how to use the entire 90 minutes,? he continued.

?I?ve said to the players that Montserrat can gain some moral victories. Maybe for them, scoring one goal is a moral victory. A draw or a win for them is certainly something they would like to achieve after the first result.

?So we have to be careful as well, we don?t want to be seen to maybe let our guard down a little bit.

?A lot has been said about the weakness of Montserrat, and maybe it?s true, but we have to prove our own ability as well, so maybe a draw would speak more about the weakness of Montserrat than our own qualities.

?It?s important that that we realise that our team has a little bit of potential and the first result was a fantastic result. And we will certainly try to score as many goals as possible, but that?s not the most important thing . . . the most important thing for me is that the players control the match, control the tempo and whatever chances are created in the 90 minutes using minimal resources are taken advantage of.

?The hard work in this match has been done in the first leg, so there?s no need to outdo that. It?s going to be a long road for us, so it?s important that we think ahead.

?We?re looking to play a lot of matches before El Salvador, so conserving energy is very important.

?The international matches we?re hoping to line up combined with the final club matches of the season could be physically draining, so we have to strike the right balance between getting the right result and saving energy along the way.?

Having watched his squad develop since he took the reins last year, Thompson says he firmly believes his players have the potential to match any side in the Caribbean region.

But in order to explore that potential, Bermuda Football Association, he contends, will need to arrange as many fixtures as possible against quality international opponents.

?The main thing we have to look to in the future is exposure,? said Thompson. ?The players now have an idea of the type of intensity that is required at the top level. We need that kind of intensity on a regular basis, because we don?t get it at club level and we don?t get it in preparation matches against local teams.

?So we do have a weakness in the sense that a very strong team could surprise us in the first 15 to 20 minutes of a match. It?s important that we get in as many matches as possible, and we?re working very hard to provide that exposure. I believe in the players of Bermuda, I believe they have a lot of potential, but we lack exposure.

?Playing more will give us the opportunity to learn from our mistakes.

?The Barbados matches (at Christmas) were important - we played very well in the first and poorly in the second. But immediately on returning to training, the players indicated they wanted to train more, they suddenly knew this was going to be more difficult than they originally thought.

?The learning curve was steep, but it?s levelling off.

?I believe it would be irresponsible of us to bring teams to Bermuda who we could beat comfortably. We need stiff competition.

?We have to learn and move forward, and I think we?ve seen a tremendous improvement since the Barbados matches.?