the same battery that hit him in the back of the head after he had made his best save of the match from Julio Lozano's free kick in the first half.

The brave youngster kept the incident from his team-mates until after the match, having picked up the battery from the ground and calmly placed it in his hat behind the goal.

"At that stage our momentum was going and I didn't want to risk anything by going down,'' said Adams afterwards. "It didn't make sense alarming the other players so early in the match. After that nothing else happened.'' The crowd of close to 45,000 was the biggest the Bermuda team has played in front of so far in this campaign and with his back to the crowd, Adams admitted it can get scary at times.

"My first thought was to get out of there, but that's something they use to frighten you and take you off your game.'' Though the crowd was not as noisy as the one the Bermudians found in Haiti this year, the constant popping of firecrackers behind the goals was very unsettling at first.

"I definitely expected the crowd to be much more vocal,'' said Adams, who today returns to school in North Carolina until Thursday.

"This wasn't the first time I've played in a match with firecrackers, but when the first one went off I jumped because it caught me off guard. I also experienced it in Guatemala in one of the youth tournaments.'' Bermuda tour manager Gregory Grimes said the incident with the battery will be mentioned to the El Salvador officials.

"No one knew he got hit until after the match,'' said Grimes. "It will be brought to the attention of the El Salvador federation when we speak to them tomorrow.'' Neil Paynter, back from a hamstring pull, admitted to feeling some discomfort in the closing minutes of the match as he started to favour the leg while Shawn Goater came out in the second half with a bandage on his right hand after injuring it as he fell. Captain Meshach Wade is nursing a bruised right foot.