Bermuda 5 St Vincent & the Grenadines 1

Bermuda coach Gary Adams has urged his players to maintain focus following their come-from-behind victory over St Vincent & the Grenadines in the Concacaf Women’s Under-17 World Cup qualifiers in Puerto Rico yesterday.

Stung by conceding their first goal of the tournament in the first half, Adams’s team scored five unanswered second-half goals to record a huge win.

Milan Gibbons-Thomas struck twice, with Evans Welch, Avani Patton and Keyandae Lightbourne also finding the target. Stephanie Hunte scored for St Vincent, who finished with ten players on the field after Rebekah John was shown a second yellow card in the 63rd minute.

The win lifted Bermuda to the top of the standings in group A, level on points with hosts Puerto Rico, who beat Cayman Islands 1-0 earlier in the day. The clash between the two unbeaten teams on Friday will decide who is guaranteed to qualify for the Concacaf Championship in Mexico.

“The mood in the camp is positive and everybody is excited to be in the position that we’re in,” Adams told The Royal Gazette.

“We've done all the work to to allow us the opportunity to qualify. We've put ourselves in a good place, but it’s that opportunity that we now need to take advantage of.

“We’re just making the players aware, yes congratulations, but the hardest task will be on Friday and lt’s going to be more mentally and physically demanding for the players.

“We’re trying to bring them back, get them calm and normal, get them to rest and recover. Puerto Rico is going to be a very demanding game and we need to be better in our approach.

“I’m just very proud of the girls to come from a goal down and score five goals. I’m sure that will give them a lot of belief and confidence, which is what they’re going to need.”

On a hot humid day in Mayagüez, Bermuda made a bright start with Cayli Dowling chance striking the upright in the fourteenth minute after good work from Daley Outerbridge.

Bermuda’s complacency at the back gifted Hunte St Vincent’s first goal of the tournament. Goalkeeper Taya Rodrigues’s goal kick went straight to Raydahlia Bute, whose shot at goal was blocked by Nila Samuels, but the ball fell kindly for Hunte to score.

Jolted by the setback, Adams made three changes at the start of the second half, with Gibbons-Thomas, Welch and Azae Burrows thrown into the fray.

“On the substitutions, one of them was forced,” Adams said.

“The player was struggling with injury and we thought of switching things up. We knew the game could potentially be very physical, so we rested our starters and trusted other players to carry the workload.

“Credit to Cayli Dowling and Jayla Peets-Butterfield for their excellent workrate, especially in unfamiliar positions. It allowed us to bring the starters on fresh at half-time to get the win and it worked our perfectly.”

An exquisite strike by Welch from the edge of the box on the hour mark brought Bermuda level before great work on the left by Outerbridge put Gibbons-Thomas through for her first goal in the 62nd minute, the powerful forward doing well to hold the ball up and drag it past the keeper.

Welch provided Bermuda’s third goal in the 77th minute by dispossessing a defender before releasing Patton to fire first time into the net.

Gibbons-Thomas netted her second goal five minutes before the end when she reacted swiftly to a pass from Lightbourne on the right to score from a tight angle. Lightbourne added the fifth in the 89th minute with a volley from a Burrows corner.

SCORERS

Bermuda: Welch 60, Gibbons-Thomas 62, 85, Patton 77, Lightbourne 89

St Vincent & the Grenadines: Stephanie Hunte 31

TEAMS

Bermuda (4-4-2): T Rodrigues – J Peets-Butterfield (sub: E Welch, 46min), A Simons, Z Showers, A Barry (sub: A Burrows, 46) – S Trott, K Lightbourne, A Patton, N Samuels (sub: J Sealey, 80) – C Dowling (sub: M Gibbons-Thomas, 46), D Outerbridge (sub: P Denbrook, 87). Substitutes not used: S Baisden-Scott, K Curling, T Glasgow, N Minors, J Trott.

St Vincent & the Grenadines (4-3-3): R Thompson – D Woods (sub: C Myers, 71), Z Harry, A Quow, R John – K Browne (sub: E Nanton, 71), A Edwards (sub: N Kydd, 71), L Barrow (sub: L Buddy, 82) – R Bute, S Hunte, C Laborde. Substitutes not used: K Hazel, D James, A Pierre, M Sam, H Thomas, E Welcome. Booked: John. Sent off: John.

Referee: C Hinds (Trinidad & Tobago).