Ireland coach Phil Simmons attributed his team's convincing win over Bermuda to a total team effort, writes Colin Thompson.

From the outset the Irish always seemed to be a cut above their opponents in every facet of the game and in the end were thoroughly deserving of the lopsided win.

"It was nice to see everybody chip in and put in in a whole team effort," the former Trinidad and West Indies batsman said. "At this level you have to come out and play hard and whenever you get on top of the opposition it always puts you in a stronger position.

"And this is exactly what we achieved against Bermuda, which was good to see."

Simmons had nothing but praise for centurions William Porterfield (166) and Andre Botha (122) and his team's varied bowling attack that gave very little away during the course of the match.

"Everybody contributed at some point in time when we needed someone to stand up and it was good to see that," he added.

And despite his team's ruthless display, Simmons still had a bit of sympathy for fellow Trinidadian and Bermuda coach Gus Logie.

"Obviously this result may be hard on him and as a coach you are going to win some and lose some as well," he said.

"As long as I win there is a little bit of sympathy for Gus although at the same time I am here to get my team to win."

When asked to share his thoughts on the visitors' performance, Simmons replied: "I don't think Bermuda played as well as I know they can. I just think we played well while they didn't play as well as they possibly can play."

Ireland are the current Intercontinental Cup champions and earlier this year turned the cricket world on its head following victories over Test teams Pakistan and Bangladesh at the World Cup in the Caribbean.

Yet rather than dwell upon past achievements, Simmons has challenged his players to strive for even bigger and better things next year.

"You always have to look to go one better and so our goal next year is to win games even more convincingly heading up to the World Cup qualifiers (ICC Trophy) in 2009," he said. "But at the end of the day all I can do is thank the team for putting in a whole-hearted effort in all of the games they have played since I've been in charge because they have done themselves very well."