Bermuda head into two World Cup qualifiers this week knowing nothing short of back-to-back wins will be good enough to make it to the next stage.

The men’s national team need three points against Cayman Islands at Flora Duffy Stadium tonight (8pm) before flying into Havana to take on Cuba next Tuesday, with only the top two teams in group A progressing.

It has been a year since Bermuda played in a qualifier, with their two games last June yielding only one point after a 1-1 draw with Antigua & Barbuda and a heavy 6-1 defeat by Honduras.

That leaves Bermuda bottom of the five-team group, but six points in their next two games would guarantee them second spot.

Coach Michael Findlay, who is approaching his second anniversary in the job, knows the importance of the match against Cayman Islands and is urging his players to turn Flora Duffy Stadium into a fortress.

“I’ve been very clear to the guys that we have one very big objective, and that is three points against Cayman Islands,” Findlay said.

“We haven’t even discussed Cuba yet, from a player point of view, as we are living in the Cayman Islands environment and it’s very simple — we need three points.

“There should be no excuses. Cayman needs to know that they are coming into our home; it’s not their home and we’re going to look to be committed, apply our plan and execute it.”

Bermuda are on the back foot in the qualifying campaign after dropping two points against Antigua, but there has been significant improvement in the past 12 months, with the island’s players giving Honduras a scare during the recent Gold Cup preliminary round play-off that was won 7-3 on aggregate by the Central Americans.

“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t disappointed with our first result against Antigua & Barbuda,” Findlay said.

“But coming into this we have seen some real improvement on a number of different levels with this group. Their mentality is starting to change, as the players think about that high-performance lifestyle, but also the idea of applying themselves to the highest degree over a 90-minute period.

“That’s been a challenge for us, as we’ve struggled to close games off in the final 15 to 20 minutes, but we’ve discovered that they have the discipline in the two recent matches against Honduras.

“Yes, we did lose, but I was incredibly happy with the discipline and the ability to apply a plan. Now going into these games, the mentality is that we competed against Honduras in both matches, we scored goals against them and we showed that we were able to stand up to a team ranked seventh in Concacaf. Now we have to take that mentality and press teams like Cayman Islands and Cuba.”

As ever with the Bermuda squad, there is turnover in terms of players and Findlay is used to not having consistency with selection.

“There has been a lot of rotation in the squad since I arrived, as we don’t have the luxury other countries have in relation to full-time professional players,” the coach said.

“When we are dealing with a mix of players at different levels, there are external factors sometimes preventing players from accepting a selection, but part of our plan and overall strategy is that we need to get depth into each individual position by creating internal competition between these players.

“Our job is to put the best available players on the pitch and try to play in meaningful games. The players that don’t want to be here are not here and we’re not going to beg them to come. There are others that would like to be here, but circumstances prevent that and we respect and want to work through it. But my responsibility is Bermuda and we try our best to put the best team on the pitch.”

There are a number of changes to the latest Bermuda squad, with Razhir Jones and Jorg Dublin getting their first call-ups under Findlay, while Deniche Hill returns to the squad for the first time in a year and Harry Twite is back in the national picture after injury.

“It’s really exciting and fantastic to have Harry Twite back,” Findlay said.

“He has been a bright light for Bermuda and a consistent selection for us since I arrived. We miss him when he is not here and unfortunately he was unavailable due to injury in the recent Gold Cup matches.

“Razhir is a new one for us. We’ve been watching him a lot and he has been playing on a regular basis at Binfield [a non-League club in England]. We’ve been close to selecting him in previous camps, but due to various issues and club commitments he was unavailable.

“He brings another element to our attacking phase, which has been an area we look to continue to get better. We do not execute to the level I think we’re capable of, so to bring in an attacking player with the qualities he has displayed at club level bodes well.

“Deniche Hill was in my very first camp in September 2023 and after that he felt he needed to focus on club football and made himself unavailable, but we’ve stayed in touch with and we value his ability.

“He’s naturally left-sided and can play anywhere wide. We appreciate his commitment to be here — he is a breath of fresh air.

“Kole Hall is back after missing the March camp and we’ve added Jorg Dublin to the squad. As a domestic player, it’s nice to see him come in. It’s an opportunity for him and all the players to put down a marker.”

Findlay is pleased to reveal there have been no injuries since the players reported for duty and is happy that his team selection will not be influenced by problems.

“One of the positive things this week is that everybody is in a condition in which they can be considered for selection,” Findlay said.

“That’s very important as most players have stopped playing for at least a couple of weeks before they came to us. We have had to ramp them back up and sometimes in that process, you see players break down.

“But we haven’t seen that happen, our medical staff have done a tremendous job and it’s important that the public realise their hard work. This programme is about getting our players to play two international matches in a very short space of time. The staff can work out the way forward technically and tactically, but the most important thing in international football is to recover and get ready to go again.”