the Antiguans have only their new season and some regrouping to look forward to, Bermuda are assured of playing in six home and away matches in the next four-and-a-half months in Canada, Central America and the Caribbean in the second round of the World Cup qualifying phase.

Antigua lost to Bermuda 5-1 on aggregate and will attempt to rebuild their team after also recently failing in the Shell Caribbean Cup finals in Trinidad and Tobago. They have problems in their national team programme, having arrived in Bermuda with just 14 players and two officials after coaches William Lewis and Rohan Benjamin both made themselves unavailable for the Bermuda trip at the last moment.

"I'm obviously disappointed we didn't get through,'' said Antigua coach Shelly Clarke.

"It was our plan to get an early goal and then press home the advantage.'' Bermuda, having already advanced further in the World Cup than many critics expected, will rest for a few weeks before preparing for their participation in a tough group involving Canada, Trinidad and Tobago or Jamaica and El Salvador or Nicaragua.

The bulk of the team will be off the Island later this month with six players heading to England on trials later this week and three more, Shawn Goater, Kentoine Jennings and captain Meshach Wade, returning to their English clubs.

Coach Gary Darrell knows that the standard of the opposition will be higher in the next phase and admits there is still plenty of work to be done.

"I am a little concerned with the number of chances we created,'' he said.

"We were unlucky with the final touches but we just had to keep working. I never felt we wouldn't go through but I wanted to do it without pressure. The crowd was very supportive and seemed to be having a good time. I'm pleased for the players, we got the result we wanted and we played well.

"Getting that goal before the end of the first half was very important. Now we're coming up against teams who are almost full time but there's no question we have the talent. Overall, we need to be better.''