National team players and coaches have held a candid and open meeting to pick over individual and collective mistakes in the wake of their 4-0 capitulation against Antigua.

Bermuda's squad spent around 90 minutes – the same time it took Antigua to dismantle them – in the hotel's dining room yesterday discussing their error-laden display, which has left them facing a fight for their Digicel Cup future.

Technical director Derek Broadley said the team had spoken honestly and directly during the open forum and confessed that some of the players had not understood their roles.

"This was not a crisis meeting or anything like that," said Broadley. "Originally the meeting was going to be about St. Martin, who Gary Darrell scouted the other night, but I felt there was a greater need to discuss what went wrong against Antigua.

"I think coaching is a two-way process and we need to know what the players are thinking."

The ex-Crystal Palace academy director said Bermuda's deficiencies were glaringly obvious, but took solace from his belief that it would be difficult for them to perform that badly again.

"If it happens again then I think we have some serious issues, but I'm hoping it's just a flash in the pan. Our problems were glaringly obvious. A couple of the lads were not fully understanding of their roles.

"Then we had Reggie (Lambe) trying to make up for other people's failings and that had an impact on the rest of the team.

"Listen, I'm hopeful the Antigua game was a shot in the dark. I still think we're capable of qualifying from this group and it's not all doom and gloom."

Broadley admitted that the team's preparations for the first group stage of the Digicel Cup had worried him before the squad had even left for Cayman. On occasions the coaches had just eight players to work with during training, he revealed.

"In the run-up to this tournament we focused far too much on fitness and we needed to do more work on the individual specifics.

"I'm certainly not attributing any of that to Kenny (Thompson) though. It's hard to do shape work if players don't turn up to training and it's hard to do game style if you don't have your full team to work with.

"When you only have eight or nine players at a training session you can't really work on your attacking and defending principles."

In the absence of key cogs of their machinery, Kevin Richards, Omar Shakir, Kofi Dill and Meshach Wade, Bermuda showed a soft underbelly against Antigua, which the Leeward Islanders were able to ruthlessly expose.

Broadley conceded that they had sorely missed their "real men".

"We're missing four or five very important, experienced players," he said. "Players like Kevin, Omar, Kofi and Meshach are physical players and what I call the real men.

"When you take five players out of any team you're going to suffer. But we have some good young players who have made this trip and they should be desperate to make an impression when they get their chance."

Coach Kenny Thompson said he would refrain from making wholesale changes when Bermuda take on St. Martin in tomorrow's rearranged fixture. With Tropical Storm Gustav heading straight for Cayman Islands, both today's group matches have been postponed.

"The players are deeply disappointed and they must improve their performances both individually and collectively," said Thompson.

"We won't look to make too many changes. I think it's always dangerous to make sweeping changes after a defeat, but at the same time we have to hold the players accountable."

Midfielder Keishen Bean was due to fly in from Bermuda yesterday to join the squad, but that is now unlikely due to the impending Tropical Storm.