One or two home truths have been handed out to our players this week ahead of our double-header against Crystal Palace Baltimore and Richmond Kickers in the United States.

And to be fair to them their response in training has been first-class and just the reaction we were hoping for.

We’ve been focusing particularly on defending which has been our weakness this campaign and we’ve been working hard to iron out the silly, sloppy mistakes.

It’s all very well trying to play football at the back but you have to be prepared to do the dirty work and if that means putting the ball into Row-Z then so be it.

We all watch Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal pass the ball along the back-line and sure it looks good but the Hogges are not quite at that stage and we felt a few guys had to be reminded of that.

But to their credit they have taken it on board and hopefully we will see a big improvement over the weekend.

As Bermudian’s we all love the sort of free-flowing football associated with Brazilians, Argentineans and the Dutch — it’s wonderful to watch. It’s in our blood and that’s how young Bermudians want to play their football, which is fine and good.

But defending is also vital — just look at the Italian national team who lifted the World Cup in 2006. Their success was built on solid, organised defending and we must take a leaf out of their book.

When I first went to England as a raw youngster I had to learn the hard way as I was lacking in the defensive department.

Because I was a striker I believed I was didn’t have to defend and naively thought that was the job of the defenders.

Boy, was I wrong — and I soon had to learn the fundamentals and now firmly believe the forwards are the first line of defence.

Defending as a team is vital and our strikers must learn to close down the opposition back-line and our midfield must track back and apply pressure when we are not in possession. But this will take time to install.

All our players have enjoyed success at their respective domestic clubs but now they have stepped up to a different level where they won’t get pampered and where mistakes will get punished.

It’s the long ball that’s proving our undoing and that’s something we have talked a lot about this week.

At the moment teams will be looking at us and may see us as a soft touch. They will see we have conceded eight goals in two games and probably be looking forward to playing us.

But all the coaches have high standards at the Hogges and we will not accept that and must dispel those thoughts as soon as possible.

As I say, the players are working terrifically hard to improve that side of their game and we couldn’t ask any more from them in training.

We are entering a hectic period of fixtures with three games in just four days with Wilmington Hammerheads visiting the National Stadium next Tuesday.

It will certainly be a stern test for us but one we are looking forward to — hopefully it bring our first victory.

Having played five fixtures we would have loved a few more points on the board at this stage, but at least we now know we’re competing at the right level.There would be no point in setting up the Hogges if we were strolling through games and the fact it’s been such a challenge can only improve the standard of our play.

Finally we gave a few of our fringe players a run out last night against Kenny Thompson’s Under-23 national team.

It’s something Kenny was keen on and we were looking to give those players who haven’t seen much regular football some match practice.