Damon Ming claims Bermuda’s poor preparations severely hampered their chances of qualifying from the first round of the Caribbean Digicel Cup.Ming and his team-mates had just three weeks to train under recently appointed national team coach Andrew Bascome and could only finish third in a group that included hosts Haiti, Puerto Rico and French St Martin.In view of the limited time frame, Ming insists Bascome did all he could to prepare Bermuda for their first competitive games since last year’s World Cup qualifiers but simply didn’t have long enough to implement his ideas.Even so, had they not lost their opening game against Puerto Rico after conceding an injury time goal, Ming believes Bermuda would have been in a strong position to claim a top-two finish and advance to the next stage.“If we had got a result from our first game (against Puerto Rico) it would have set us up to finish in the top two,” said Ming.“With that being said, if you look at the time frame the coaching staff had to get us ready, just three weeks, that ain’t no good preparations.“But considering the short time Andrew, (Richard) Todd and (Dennis) Brown had, I think they did a good job.”With the Island Games to be held in Bermuda in less than 12 months, a competition the national team are among the favourites to win, Ming believes it’s crucial the senior national programme does not return to its dormant state of recent years.“I think we need to look to keep the programme up and running in these periods when there ain’t no tournaments, even if they get this squad together once every month, working around the local teams’ training schedules.“Hopefully they can do that because there’s no reason why we can’t compete against the top teams in the Caribbean. Against Haiti we controlled the whole second half and had more chances than them.“We showed we can compete against the top nations and with better preparation who knows what we can do.”Ming returned to domestic duties with Dandy Town at the weekend, helping Hornets thrash North Village 4-0 in the Charity Cup at Goose Gosling Field.And with the defending champions strengthening their squad with new additions Ajani Gibbons and Temiko Wilson from Boulevard, Ming sees no reason why Hornets can’t dominate again this season.“We got off to a good start (against Village) and we’re just looking to carry on from where we left off last season,” he said.“We’ve brought in some new players who seem to have gelled really well.“The players know we will have to fight for our positions and that will only help us perform at a better level.“We don’t feel any extra pressure as defending champions, this is another season and we will look to build on our performance from last season.”Hornets take on Southampton Rangers at Southampton Oval in the Premier Division on Sunday.