National coach Michael Findlay has said he has learnt more about the Bermuda players during this international window than at any other time.

Two games into the final round of World Cup qualifying, Bermuda sit bottom of the group after a 4-0 defeat by Jamaica and a 3-2 loss to Curaçao, with their chances of reaching the biggest stage in global football looking slim.

But Findlay has taken great pride in the battling qualities of his squad, especially in Curaçao on Tuesday night, and he senses the players are starting to believe that they belong at this level.

“The thing myself and the staff have learnt the most from this international window is the capabilities of these players,” Findlay said.

“They have shown in pockets that they can absolutely play at this level, but they now just have to do it on a more consistent basis. There is no doubt that we have developed as a group an inner competitiveness and a fight that I feel was not evident when I came in two years ago.

“It really has evolved and players are looking at each other and wanting to keep everyone accountable.

“But we’ve also learnt that we have a lot of work to do in dealing with the speed of play and the athleticism that this level brings. That comes from experience, match time and dealing with success when it comes your way.”

Bermuda’s two matches have been characterised by poor starts, with the Gombey Warriors conceding after five minutes against Jamaica and going 2-0 down inside 25 minutes against Curaçao. Findlay was particularly disappointed with Tuesday after plans had been hatched.

“It was quite obvious that we struggled early against Curaçao and didn’t get off on the best foot,” Findlay said.

“We certainly wanted to and we felt that one of the areas of the game we needed to improve upon from Jamaica was the level of intensity in our movement and our actions. We talked about that after Jamaica and we hoped that would be the case.

“That did happen, but it took us 20 to 25 minutes to get there, as we struggled with the pace and we struggled with the intensity of the press.

“We knew that Curaçao were not going to play against us the way they did against Trinidad & Tobago on Friday night, when they were quite passive. We felt that they were going to come at us and we felt strongly we had the ability to deal with that, but we struggled and we got caught.

“That really was the game at that moment in time, but we are really pleased with the response we gave as a group.”

After pulling themselves out of a two-goal hole to go in at half-time level, Findlay reorganised the team, giving up possession and hoping to hit the home side on the break — and, despite giving up the only goal of the second half, he feels the tactical adjustment worked.

“This is one of the first games other than the Honduras game where there was a big difference between the possession stats of the two teams,” he said.

“We made a decision at half-time that we were going to reorganise the group and move into a lower engagement line and lower block, as we felt we had too many gaps between our lines and they were hurting us in areas where they could accelerate and attack us with pace.

“The adjustment worked and we thought we could lay in wait and trap them, as we felt our front four have as much skill as anybody in this group and can cause tremendous amounts of problems.

“We did cause problems in the second half, but unfortunately we were unable to keep that intensity up and got caught with a deep run in behind — and that’s the game.”

Bermuda have conceded seven goals in the two matches this week, but Findlay reserved particular praise for goalkeeper Dale Eve, who produced a remarkable performance against Curaçao, with his goal peppered by ten shots on target.

“Dale Eve is, and always has been, a gamer for me and he gave us a performance that was absolutely critical,” Findlay said.

“He kept us in the game in the first half. At 2-0 down, I feared the worst and I’m sure the players feared the worst, but luckily we were mature enough and had the fight so that when someone like Dale made critical saves to keep us in it, we were able to readjust, reorganise and galvanise the group and put ourselves into the game.

“We’re happy we have someone like Dale in that position.”