Kyle Lightbourne, the interim Bermuda coach, has urged his players to “stand up and be counted” when they take on Barbados in a friendly international at the National Stadium tonight.

Lightbourne, who was appointed after Andrew Bascome stepped down this summer, believes his team have enough weapons to get the job done against the Barbadians, who are making their first appearance on these shores in nearly a decade.

“I expect it to be a tight game,” Lightbourne said. “We have our thoughts how we should play and are going to try and put [those] in place.

“They are a tall team, so I expect them to maybe look for set pieces. But whatever they throw at us we are going to look to deal with it. We want to get the ball movement going and control the game.

“I think our boys have shown against previous teams that we are no pushovers.

“Yes, sometimes results may go against you. But we will be able to stand up and be counted, and I will expect that from our team.”

Bermuda’s squad was announced late last night and contains overseas-based professionals such as Carlisle United’s Reggie Lambe, the captain, and Zeiko Lewis, of New York Red Bulls II.

“It’s always good for the local players to play with the overseas players as it will give them a bit of a lift,” Lightbourne said.

“It also gives the players that have come back a bit of a lift as they don’t want the local players to show them up, so it works both ways. I always felt that when I was coming back to play, showing why I was playing at the professional level.

“We have a lot of technically good players who are also tidy on the ball and fast.”

Lightbourne is not too concerned about Barbados’s world ranking of 160th, which is 21 places above Bermuda.

“They are ranked above us so that counts for a lot and then it doesn’t in another sense because we don’t play as many matches as them,” he said.

Bermuda and Barbados have each won twice in the five previous meetings between the countries.

Bermuda won 3-0 when Barbados last visited the island nearly a decade ago, a result the visitors are keen to avenge.

“We have to change that,” Michael Foster, the Barbados assistant technical director, said. “I hate losing, but I accept it graciously. But we come to win.

“It’s no such thing as a friendly. Everybody wants to win and if you don’t then you shouldn’t be there. We’ve got a good squad here together who know each well and have played together quite a lot.”

Foster said the visitors will not be taking anything for granted even with the world rankings as they are.

“When you step on that field anybody can beat anybody and we respect everybody,” he said. “But we go out there to win whether we are playing a team above or below us.

“We are just going out there with one purpose in mind and that’s to play and win.

“If we can entertain, which we like to do, we will. And, if we can’t, then do it [José] Mourinho style [with] a 1-0, which is good because a win is a win.”

Kick off is at 8pm.

Bermuda squad

Quinaceo Hunt, Roger Lee, Reggie Lambe, Zeiko Lewis, Donte Brangman, Willie Clemons, Rai Sampson, Jaylon Bather, Dante Leverock, Tyrell Burgess, Tre Ming, Marco Warren, Mazhye Burchall, Dashun Cooper, Lejaun Simmons, Keishon Bean, Casey Castle, Daren Usher, Ian Coke, Osagi Bascome, Tego Bean.