Bermuda Hogges 0

Charlotte Eagles 6

Bermuda Hogges 0

Wilmington H'heads 1

Kyle Lightbourne has urged Bermuda Hogges to become a team of believers after putting his team's six-goal capitulation against Charlotte Eagles down to a lack of faith.

Lightbourne yesterday admitted that Hogges' long-term bout of travel sickness showed no signs of abating after seeing them suffer double defeats – the first against Wilmington Hammerheads – in North Carolina at the weekend.

It's a worrying condition which threatens to severely derail their play-off hopes and will surely punctuate much of the 'feel-good factor' that had been steadily gathering momentum after their encouraging home soil showings.

Their recent on-the-road woes have seen Hogges slip to ninth in the USL-D2 standings – the position they finished last season – although such is the 'snakes and ladders' nature of the division, they are still only three points of second place.

"I think our poor away form comes down to a lack of belief," said Lightbourne.

"When we play at home we believe we will win but when we play in the US we hope we can win.

"We can't afford to just be a home team and we must start picking up points on our travels. We are conceding too many goals away from home which is strange because we've defended well at home this season.

"I can't fault our lack of commitment or effort, but we made too many sloppy mistakes and Eagles seemed to punish us every single time."

Omar Shakir was rested against Eagles following the skipper's exertions in Hogges' narrow defeat against Hammerheads the previous night, in place of veteran defender Tokia Russell.

Although the team "defended badly as a collective unit", Lightbourne refused to blame individuals for Hogges abject display.

"Each player must evaluate their own performance as the defeat wasn't because of one player," he said.

"Although we played against Hammerheads the night before I didn't think our players lacked energy or anything."

Hogges were unable to sign New England Revolution goalkeeper Zack Simmons for the matches against Hammerheads and Eagles due to a FIFA ruling preventing Bermuda from signing players from outside Bermuda.

"Every other USL team is able to draft in players from overseas and Lightbourne said Hogges would be investigating the issue.

"We were disappointed that we were unable to bring in the 'keeper from the Revs.

"There seems to be some sort of FIFA ruling that stops us from signing players from outside Bermuda. It's something we will have to look into."

Hogges face Riverhounds at Chartiers Valley High School at –8.05 p.m. (Bermuda time) on Thursday and Islanders at Skyline Sports Complex on Saturday at 8 p.m.