Hard work, determination and home field advantage are the components central to Bermuda's success during the upcoming Caribbean Football Union Under-17 World Cup qualifying matches slated for the National Sports Centre next week - according to national youth coach Kenny Thompson.

Set to compete in a three-match round robin series, Bermuda will kick off their campaign against St.Lucia on Wednesday night (9 p.m.) while Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago square off in the curtain raiser at 7 p.m.

Only the eventual winner of the group will advance into the next phase of the competition which is tentatively scheduled for December.

After watching his youth team barely lose out to Jamaica during the last CFU qualifiers, also held at the National Sports Centre, Thompson believes that the current crop of players have the potential to make it through to the next round.

He says he is cautiously optimistic of his team's chances of success, given the fact that he has been there before with the previous under-17 squad and knows what it will take to get the job done.

"Potentially, this group can be better than the last group but what they achieve remains to be seen next week," said Thompson.

"Our chances are quite good and without a doubt the objective is to finish first in the group and it's very possible, but we will have to certainly work extremely hard and at a very high level.

Thompson said that there was little difference between the current squad and his previous under-17 team.

"The last group had a much longer preparation period," he explained. "They had been together for two and a half years whereas the current squad have only been together for six-months."

As such, home support would be vital to the team's success.

"Playing at home is always a bonus because we don't have to pack up and go to an unknown place," said Thompson.

"Obviously, it's always nice to have the full support of the home crowd who help to raise the level of motivation in the players, so playing at home is certainly a big plus as it also affords the local public to witness international football."

In July, Bermuda's youngsters were given a harsh baptism on the international stage when the Island played host to an Under-17 National Youth Tournament at the National Sports Centre.

Bermuda were thrashed 4-0 in their opening match against Canada before bouncing back to defeat Barbados 3-1.

That set themselves up with a semi-final meeting with the tournament's eventual winners, Jamaica.

Bermuda would suffer their second loss of the tournament to the Jamaicans, 2-0, before coming up short against Barbados in the consolation final which went to an an exciting penalty shoot-out after the teams ended regulation time deadlocked at 0-0.

Thompson says that the real objective of that tournament was to give the youngsters a taste of life on the international stage.

He now hopes that lessons were learned and will be taken to heart come next week.

"The experience gained during the summer youth tournament was very critical to help the players understand just how difficult football at the international level can be - especially with the opponents that we faced like Jamaica and Canada," said Thompson.

"Now they have a better appreciation for the demands that we ask of them and it has certainly helped their own personal development and we hope is that it also makes them a better team."

Somerset's Damon Ming and Boulevard's Kyle Outerbridge are the only two surviving members from the previous team, while young Rodney (Picnic) Trott recently earned himself a late call-up to the training squad.