Bermuda Hogges coach Kyle Lightbourne stood by his surprise team selection against Cleveland City Stars, insisting: "These were the players I felt could win us the game."

Influential first-team players Kevin Richards, Keishen Bean, Damon Ming and Kwame Steede were benched for last night's encounter, which finished in a disappointing third straight defeat for the Hogges.

Lightbourne admitted his starting choice may have raised a few eyebrows around the National Sports Centre, but stressed the importance of giving match experience to the rest of his squad.

"A few people will probably be surprised about the team selection, but I thought some of those players who came in did well," he said.

"Darius Cox played well against Western Mass Pioneers in mid-week and I thought he did okay tonight.

"People will say I should have brought Kevin (Richards) back in, but he has had a lot of work commitments.

"Darius deserved to keep his spot.

"This was the team I wanted to go with tonight.

"We had previously lost two consecutive games and sometimes you have to give other players opportunities as well.

"I thought Jared (Peniston) did well and Domico (Coddington) is still coming back from an injury.

"Jared suffered a bit of cramp late on and he should be fit for our next match.

"It would have helped him to get this game under his belt."

The Hogges are now preparing for life without the nucleus of their squad who will join up with the national team on Monday for intensive training as they prepare for their crucial World Cup qualifiers against Trinidad and Tobago.

It had been expected that those players called-up would miss four USL-D2 matches, but the Hogges have managed to rearrange their June 15 clash at Crystal Palace Baltimore until August.

"It's disappointing because we will miss our guys for three games and we will definitely be fielding makeshift teams," said Lightbourne.

"We've managed to rearrange the Palace match and that's a blessing because we would have had two games back-to-back.

"We are showing signs of improvement but we need to cut out the silly mistakes that are leading to goals. There's still a lot of work to do."

Lightbourne said he had no complaints with the final result and conceded that the Hogges had been beaten by the superior side.

"I thought we started the game quite well and were matching them stride for stride, but they scored that wonder goal and then we gave away a stupid goal," he said.

"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb in the second-half. I think the guys fought hard but we let ourselves down with some amateur stuff creeping in.

"We hadn't even built up a head of steam before they scored the third and killed the game off.

"They were the better team."