We saw two very different halves of football on Wednesday night and I think the blustery conditions played a part.

I thought Bermuda did well in the first-half, looked comfortable on the ball, and may have even shaded it. That should have given us confidence to win the game, although I thought we could've used the conditions better with the wind in our favour.

But the second-half saw us virtually camped inside our half and I thought we were a little naive in trying to pass the ball out of defence, especially in mind of the wind, which was now behind the Puerto Ricans.

Instead of playing the ball deep down the flanks from where we could press and pressure Puerto Rico, our full-backs kept playing short passes into midfield and we couldn't get out of our half.

If the wind is against you, you can afford to defend higher up the pitch because a ball over the top will run away from the strikers. We needed to push up and pressure them in their half of the pitch, but instead we never got out of ours.

Puerto Rico adapted better to the conditions and they had a similar physicality and organisation to the teams the Hogges faced in the USL-D2. Although, I'd say they were probably a bit more comfortable on the ball than some of the USL-D2 teams.

Having said that I didn't see a player who I thought 'this guy should be playing at a higher level' and as I say, the first-half was encouraging for Bermuda. These two games will serve as good preparation for us ahead of the Cayman Islands and hopefully we can improve on Wednesday's performance tonight.

As many of you may have read the Hogges fixtures for 2008 came out earlier this week and we open up with a tough clash away at Charlotte Eagles. To be honest all the games will be tough next season, but on the whole I'm delighted with our fixture programme.

Most of our games are weekend fixtures and from the feedback we received last season that should encourage more supporters to attend our home matches. The bulk of our players have been involved in the national programme in recent months and that should really help us in terms of fitness. It means we won't be coming in from the cold, as these guys have been active against St. Kitts and now Puerto Rico.

Should Bermuda progress past the Cayman Islands in the World Cup qualifiers a potential fixture clash would arise when they play Trinidad. Discussions have already taken place between the Hogges and the Bermuda Football Association and hopefully we can work something out concerning the dates of the international matches, allowing us to field a reasonably strong team in our games.

I see my old Man City boss Kevin Keegan 'the Messiah' is back at Newcastle! He'll certainly get the 'Toon Army' excited again and install some belief back into the players. I'd like to see Alan Shearer come in as his assistant - now that would be interesting and would be the fans' dream team.

Kevin's a real motivator and has a great talent for making players feel good about themselves. He'll take you aside and tell you there's no other player he would want in your position. I've tried to take some of those qualities on board when I'm coaching.

Where I would say he's lacking is in the tactical department and often there's no Plan B with him. When he was with England he ran out of steam because he had the best players at his disposal but found out motivation alone is not enough at the highest level. But it will certainly be fun to watch Newcastle again and see how it all pans out for them.