Darrell looks to exploit the chink in Jamaica's armour
National coach Gary Darrell hopes to exploit the chink in Jamaica's armour when Bermuda take on the Reggae Boyz tomorrow.
In their games against North Village and Devonshire Colts the Caribbean nation have dominated possession but have been unable to fully kill off their opponents.
On Boxing Day they narrowly defeated Village 2-1 and on Sunday they drew 3-3 with Devonshire Colts after leading 2-0 at one stage.
Now they face a Bermuda Select at the National Sports Centre and the home nation's coach is cautiously optimistic.
"They are a very good possession team," acknowledged Darrell.
"However, they haven't been able to put away their chances - particularly early in the matches which has allowed our club teams to hang in. And as it happened yesterday (Sunday) Colts were able to hang around and come away with a draw, even though they spent most of the game just trying to prevent Jamaica from scoring."
Darrell expects Jamaica to raise their game tomorrow as national bragging rights are at stake.
"When it comes to them playing against another country I would suspect that they will come out with a slightly different attitude," he said.
"Certainly, they would have wanted to have won all of their matches but when it comes to Bermuda versus Jamaica then they may be a bit more keen to win."
Darrell said he believed he knew how to get the better of his rivals and encouraged the public to come out and play the role of the extra man.
"Our job will be to limit the amount of chances they get and create enough of our own to ensure it's a competitive match," he said.
While not divulging too much about his team's makeup, Darrell did, however, name a few of the players he expects to play key roles tomorrow.
Former senior national skipper Meshach Wade will again lead out the team, while Village's Dwayne (Streaker) Adams, team-mate Jamaul Boyles, Jahnai Raynor, Rohaan Simons and Stephen Astwood are others he will look to take up the challenge.
Darrell admitted he would have liked more than the eight weeks he has had to get things rolling on the training ground and said rescheduled league fixtures had disrupted his plans somewhat. Nevertheless he was realistic about the situation.
"It's not really unusual to have these sort of interruptions," he said. "It's not like you can have everyone that you want at every training session and everything is going to go as you like. Even then you still just don't have enough time."
Those matters aside the coach still believes his side can emerge from the match with pride.
"I'm optimistic but I still don't know what to expect with this being the first game as a team," he said. "Basically I guess we will all have to find out at the same time."
This final contest of the festive tour will kick off at 3 p.m. and will be played in the memory of the late Dudley Eve.