National soccer coach Kyle Lightbourne is grateful for the match practice that this week?s trip to Trinidad will provide, although admits his side will have two tough encounters.

A young squad jet down to the Caribbean tomorrow to take on a Trinidad and Tobago side in the midst of their World Cup qualifying campaign after submitting to an emergency request from CONCACAF president Jack Warner.

The Trinidad side were due to take on El Salvador in a friendly on Wednesday but the Central Americans ? who knocked Bermuda out of the qualifiers last year ? had to withdraw after Hurricane Adrian hit their country late last week.

Lightbourne was only notified of the request for the game at 2 p.m. on Friday and is still putting the final touches to his squad of 18.

?Well it certainly came out of the blue,? said Lightbourne, whose side had been in training anyway for the match against Manchester City?s Academy side early next month as part of Shaun Goater?s Grassroots Festival.

?This was a real surprise ? I don?t know if I have seen anything like this happen in football before. But it is good for us and we are hoping to make the most of it.

?It will give us some good match practice ahead of the Man City game. We are not going to turn down the chance to play two games against a top-class side, even if it has been a bit of a rush to get a squad together.?

Lightbourne still hasn?t finalised his 18 to compete in the two games on Wednesday and Friday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium as he waits on whether some of his players can get the time off work at short notice ? and whether he can get some experience into the side.

Shaun Goater, who flew home this weekend, is unable to make it due to the commitments of organising his youth soccer festival while New England Revolution are not prepared to release new signing Khano Smith just ahead of US World Cup qualifiers that will see his team-mates forced away from the side?s domestic programme.

Philadelphia KiXX forward John Barry Nusum may be the only senior overseas player to return, although Lightbourne was still awaiting word from the Major Indoor Soccer League Rookie of the Year last night.

?We have a young side in training at the moment,? continued Lightbourne, who has just signed a new one-year deal as national coach after taking over from Kenny Thompson late last year.

?We were training with pretty much an Under 23 side for the Man City game to test our younger players against guys of a similar age so we could see what their level was.

?A lot of the players we are taking down for these matches are going to be that Under 23 side, although there are some older, more experienced guys going ? I think we have a good mix.

?It should be a tough test for us but it will be a good opportunity to see where we are, boost our fitness and prepare for the Man City game.?

Although Lightbourne could not name the complete squad just yet, he did confirm the following players were flying out tomorrow: Jemieko Jennings, Kentoine Jennings, Stephen Astwood, Maurice Lowe, Torry Davis and Cymande Davis.

Although few can expect an under-strength Bermuda side with only a handful of training sessions under their collective belts to beat a full-strength Trinidad side nearly 100 places ahead in the FIFA world rankings, Lightbourne just hopes to see a competitive game.

?We certainly don?t want to get embarrassed down there,? added Lightbourne.

?You have to look at the match in context of the preparation but we will be looking to acquit ourselves well and put up the best performance we can.?