With the lowest rated team in the FIFA world rankings now out the way, Bermuda coach Kenny Thompson fully appreciates his task can only get tougher as he attempts to take his young charges further along the road to Germany 2006.

Next up in June are El Salvador.

"It's very, very difficult to make accurate assessments after results like this. We tried to guard against complacency and looked at it as a new match. But it's very difficult for the players to really dig deep.

"We will need difficult matches and that's what we're trying to line up now.

"It's good to get past the first round. We had no choice about who we were going to be drawn against, so we did the job that we had to do and now we have to get focused on El Salvador."

Results apart, Thompson said he was pleased with the way the players had gelled both on and off the field.

"The spirit of this squad is fantastic," he said. "All of the players get along. We've seen it in training, in our stays together in Bermuda and now on the road and that's very good. That's one of the advantages we have as a small country, we can operate like a club team ? it even feels like a club team." Sports Minister Dale Butler, who travelled with the squad, was another who was impressed by what he saw yesterday.

"I'm very, very happy. Today the team were impressive . . . not a big score like we had in Bermuda, but I think our team did very well," said Butler.

"The Montserrat team played very well, much better than we saw in Bermuda. I was impressed with the ground and the overall hospitality of the people in this country.

"It was a very worthwhile trip. The Government wanted to show support and I'm pleased I came.

"El Salvador are next and wouldn't it be great if we could get a few Bermudians to go down there and cheer them on? Some additional support would be a great help."

As for Montserrat coach William Lewis, it's a case of back to the drawing board ? again.

"They played a lot better than in the last game," said Lewis, whose national side is made up of players from just five local sides.

"But as usual we gave away some easy goals.

"We are building and even though we lost this game we can still look ahead. We showed a lot of improvement, all we need to do now is play more teams like Bermuda."