Barbados 4 Bermuda 1

Bermuda squandered an early lead against Barbados to suffer a third straight Concacaf Nations League defeat tonight.

Djair Parfitt put the Gombey Warriors in front in the eighth minute, but they failed to build on that early momentum.

Barbados hit back through Thierry Gale, who struck in the 26th and 41st for his brace, while captain Andre Applewhaite added a third in the 29th and Niall Reid-Stephen completed the scoring in the 86th.

The result sent Barbados back to the top of group B on seven points, after being briefly overtaken by St Lucia when they defeated Guadeloupe 3-0, while Bermuda remain rooted to the bottom of the standings with no points and starring at relegation from League B.

In pursuit of their first points of the campaign, Bermuda made a great start at Barbados Football Association Technical Centre when Parfitt connected with a superb cross from Deniche Hill on the left.

Captain Nahki Wells could have doubled Bermuda’s lead had he not taken a heavy touch after being played through on goal.

Barbados equalised when Gale found the net after an initial block by London Steede-Jackson. Three minutes later, captain Andre Applewhaite latched on to a through ball from Jaheim Neblett to put his side ahead.

Gale, despite being closely watched by Steede-Jackson and Lejaun Simmons, was able to shift the ball to his right foot and rifle into the net for the third.

At the start of the second half, John Barry Nusum made one change with Riley Robinson replacing Luke Robinson.

In the 64th, Parfitt and Justin Donawa made way for Ajani Burchall and Blayz Borgesson.

Jahquil Hill denied Gale what looked like a certain hat-trick with a brilliant stop in the 65th when the forward was given acres of space to take a shot at goal.

Burchall had a great chance to reduce the deficit two minutes after coming on, but skied his effort after some fine work by Wells on the right.

In the 74th, Wells came close, but his shot lacked venom and was comfortably gathered by Jamal Blackman.

Burchall was forced off with an injury just 15 minutes after coming on, replaced by Enrique Russell. Zeiko Lewis also replaced Wells as one of the last changes for Bermuda.

With ten minutes to go, Ne-Jai Tucker unleashed a powerful strike from the edge of the box that Blackman did well to push behind.

As Bermuda pushed to get back into the encounter, they were left open at the back, allowing Gale to tee up Reid-Stephen for the fourth.

With the two teams meeting again on Monday night at the same venue, Nusum and his technical team will have a lot of pondering to do as they look for solutions to the nightmarish start.

SCORERS

Barbados: Gale 26, 41, Applewhaite 29, Reid-Stephen 86

Bermuda: Parfitt 8

TEAMS

Bermuda: J Hill, L Simmons, D Hill, J Donawa, H Twite, L Steede-Jackson, N Tucker, S Hall, D Parfitt, N Wells, L Robinson. Substitutes: C Fubler, M Perott, C McDowall, B Morrison, E Peets, Z Lewis, D Richardson, A Burchall, B Borgesson, E Darrell, R Robinson, E Russell

Barbados: J Blackman, J Gollop, T Bailey-Edwards, M Williams, A Banton, J Neblett, A Applewhaite, O Leacock, N Reid-Stephen, C Griffith, T Gale. Substitutes: K Lashley, J Malcolm, Z Applewhite, L Catlyn, R Clarke, S Prescod, R Bourne, S Hoyte, T James, D King, J Oughterson, D Thorne

Referee: E De La Cruz (Cuba).