His boss said he expects Bermuda to finish top of the Digicel Cup?s next group stage, but assistant national coach Paul Scope remains only cautiously optimistic ahead of the team?s crucial assignments next month.

In a strongly-worded statement on Wednesday, Bermuda Football Association president Larry Mussenden insisted Bermuda were travelling to Barbados ?to win the group? and qualify for the finals in Trinidad early next year, adding that ?the public would accept nothing less.?

But Kyle Lightbourne?s deputy said yesterday that although Bermuda had avoided big-hitters Haiti because of a last-minute decision to redo the draw, getting to Trinidad as one of the top two in the group would still be hard work against the likes of Barbados, St. Vincent and the Bahamas.

After finishing top of group Group C last week in the US Virgin Islands, thanks to victories over the hosts and the Dominican Republic, the national team were originally scheduled to progress into a group containing Haiti, St. Vincent and the Dominican Republic ? before the Caribbean Football Union decided to change things.

Bermuda?s bid to host their second-stage group was rejected by the CFU in favour of Barbados on Wednesday afternoon.

?I?m not sure it makes much difference to us,? said Scope.

?Are we any worse off? No. But are we any better off? I don?t know. Yes, avoiding a team like Haiti is probably a good thing and although we would have liked to have had home field advantage, that didn?t work out and we?re quite happy about the prospect of travelling down to Barbados.

?Saying that, we know Barbados at home are going to be a tough proposition ? they topped their first-stage group, which was no mean feat against teams like St. Kitts who I know are a good side.

?St. Vincent beat Jamaica as well in the first round, so just from that we can see they?re going to present a big challenge. Now in the normal course of events we would expect to beat a team like the Bahamas, but they will be a stronger outfit than the Dominican Republic who we?ve already beaten and were scheduled to play in the original group.

?Both Barbados (153) and St.Vincent (129) have a higher FIFA ranking than us (163) and I know it?s close and rankings count for very little when you?re out there on the park, but it does put things into perspective.?

The former pro added, however, that the timing of the games ? from November 19 to the 23 ? should work in Bermuda?s favour as all overseas players ? including the UK-based winger Damon Ming ? would most likely be available.

?If there was one thing Kyle and I were celebrating it was the dates,? he said.

?Any earlier and there could have been some conflicts but by mid-November, the MLS will be finished so Khano Smith will definitely be available and the college play-offs will be over as well. There is a also a strong possibility that Damon will take some time off from Hayes to join up with us.

?So while we felt that the team performed well down in USVI, by mid-November everybody should be fitter and sharper having played more football and we would expect to play even better in Barbados.

?We?ll definitely try to win every game and we?ll try and win the group. Whether that will happen I don?t know.

?But what Kyle and I have said before and it deserves to be stressed over and over again is that this is the strongest group of players we?ve ever put together and I think if everybody?s fit and firing, we?ve certainly got a very good chance.?

The second stage of the Digicel Cup consists of three groups of four teams, with the top two going through to the eight-team finals in Trinidad this January.

The three third-place teams will battle it out in a play-off for the two remaining finals berths ? most likely in early December.