Bermuda 5 Grenada 3

Naquita Robinson bowed out as Bermuda head coach on a victorious note as the Lady Gombey Warriors came from behind to beat Grenada in their final Concacaf Women’s Qualifier at Flora Duffy Stadium on Saturday night.

The home side trailed 3-0 in the first half with Robinson watching from the stands after she was sent off by Mexican referee Priscila Pérez.

However, after making a few tactical adjustments, Bermuda bounced back and scored five unanswered goals, with FC United of Manchester forward Keunna Dill leading the charge with four. Bournemouth midfielder Kenni Thompson grabbed the other, much to the delight of the outgoing coach.

“I am just so proud of them because in the past teams would’ve dropped their heads and not got back into it,” she told The Royal Gazette.

“I knew that they would dig deep, grind it out and we would win regardless of what the score was at half-time, and we did.”

Bermuda Football Association president Mark Wade dropped a bombshell when he announced that Robinson would be retiring during a brief ceremony before kick-off that was also attended by David Burt, the Premier, and sports minister Owen Darrell.

“It definitely was a hard decision but a decision that had to be made and I think a decision that I’ll stick to,” Robinson said.

“It was a hard decision but this was a kind of love that wasn’t going to last for ever.”

With her team trailing 2-0, Robinson’s evening went from bad to worse after she received her marching orders for the first time, leaving sibling Cal “Patches” Dill to take the reins in her absence.

“A sending-off and a sendoff all in one,” Robinson said. “First sending-off in my last one, but it’s part of the game.

“I felt I let my team down but I knew they were going to fight for me because they all know that I fought for them and that I didn’t get a red card just from not doing anything for them.

“I am always going to stand up for my players and I felt that we were being hard done. That can hurt and demoralise a team, but at the end of the day it is what it is.”

Robinson hailed the exploits of four-goal hero Dill, who put on a clinical display of finishing.

“Keunna has actually played at left back the entire tournament and this match I pushed her farther forward and she came through for the team,” she said.

“She’s a supreme athlete and every time she got in behind I knew it was going to be a goal.”

Dill was thrilled to bag her first hat-trick in a Bermuda shirt but refused to take all the credit.

“It was great to get four, but if I didn’t have my team-mates feeding me the ball those goals would not have come,” she said.

“Usually I’m in the back line but I was trusted to be a forward player today and it was a first-time hat-trick for myself.”

Like Robinson, Dill never doubted the team’s ability to rebound after falling behind early.

“We knew we were down but never out,” she said.

“We knew this was a team where if we buckled down and executed how we wanted to that we could come back, and thankfully we did.”

With nothing but pride at stake after missing out on making it to the next stage of the competition, Bermuda were forced to chase the game after goals from Melania Fullerton, Sheranda Charles and captain Nia Fleming-Thompson in the space of 21 minutes put Grenada in early control.

Fullerton opened the scoring after beating Bermuda goalkeeper Sharifa Crockwell with a shot from distance to silence the 715 home fans.

Grenada were then awarded a penalty after Charles was brought down in the area but Fleming-Thompson dragged her effort wide from 12 yards.

Charles doubled the Grenada lead after reacting first to a rebound off the woodwork from close range.

Bermuda gradually began to get a foothold in the match with captain Eva Frazzoni drawing a fine save by Grenada stopper Rashida Herry.

But it was the away side who would score again as Fleming-Thompson buried a shot from eight yards to make amends for her earlier penalty miss.

Still, Bermuda pressed on and were finally rewarded when Dill broke the Grenadian resistance after taking possession of Thompson’s pass and whipping the ball past Herry.

K’shaela Burch-Waldron then went close for the Lady Gombey Warriors when her shot from the edge of the area pinged the woodwork.

Dill struck again in first-half stoppage time after racing on to Frazzoni’s pass and firing past Herry to blow the game wide open and set the stage for more fireworks to come.

Grenada went close to restoring their two-goal cushion after the restart when Fleming-Thompson rounded Crockwell but had her goalbound effort cleared by defender Koa Goodchild.

Dill then brought the teams level after converting Thompson’s pull-back in the box after making a brilliant run down the left side.

Coach Dill was forced to make an unscheduled change when defender Danni Watson took a blow to the head and was taken away on a stretcher.

Thompson then went from provider to scorer when she drilled a low free kick from outside the box into the far bottom corner to put Bermuda ahead for the first time.

Crockwell then pulled off a superb save at the other end to deny Fullerton what appeared a certain goal.

Dill sealed Bermuda’s hard-fought win when she drilled in her fourth goal from substitute Khyla Brangman’s short corner to cap another memorable night for the Lady Gombey Warriors.

The result was hard for Grenada head coach Melanie Thomas to fathom after watching her team squander a three-goal advantage and a penalty.

“It’s hard as we’ve worked all year for the duration of the Concacaf women’s tournament and they have been improving and developing and unfortunately tonight we just didn’t have it,” she said.

SCORERS

Bermuda: Dill 38, 45+4, 57, 90, Thompson 83

Grenada: Fullerton 4, Charles 17, Fleming-Thompson 25

TEAMS

Bermuda (4-4-2): S Crockwell ― D Watson (sub: A Furbert, 79min), V Davis, Z Webb, K Goodchild ― K Burch-Waldron (sub: J Simmons, 61), M Mobray (sub: K Brangman, 79), K Dill, J Ratteray-Smith — E Frazzoni, K Thompson. Substitutes not used: K Gibbons, M Christian, S Dillard, S Trott, S Berkeley, S Lowe-Darrell, S Fisher. Booked: Webb. Sent off: N Robinson (coach).

Grenada (4-3-3): R Herry ― R Noel (sub: J Melo, 46), M Ramdhanny, J McIntosh, A Bubb (sub: A Hypolite, 88) — M Fullerton (sub: S Johnson, 88), R Mitchell, C Bisasor — S Charles, A Williams (sub: K Daniel, 66), N Fleming-Thompson. Substitutes not used: K Charles, E Sylvester, J George, R Frank, M Lewis, C Noel.

Referee: P Pérez (Mexico)