BERMUDA'S doubleheader against St.Kitts and Nevis should have provided Keith Tucker with sufficient reasons to be cheerful this festive season.

For the victory in Sunday's second stanza marked not only his maiden triumph as national coach, but Bermuda's first win on the international stage for a staggering 13-months.

Admittedly, The Sugar Boyz are hardly one of the Concacaf region's goliaths and Bermuda's opponents in their crucial World Cup qualifiers, the Cayman Islands, are sure to pose a far greater challenge.

But that hurdle is still two months away with possible dress rehearsals against either Antigua or Puerto Rico, as well as an overseas training camp, in the pipeline as part of the preparation programme.

Quite simply, Tucker's men can't play enough games between now and their date with destiny. The obvious improvement between their two matches against St.Kitts is proof of the importance of regular national team fixtures.

Because while they created ample goalscoring opportunities to beat St.Kitts in their first meeting, Bermuda's ring rust was clearly evident with their sometimes juvenile defending duly punished twice.

Encouragingly though were the displays of teenage debutantes Reggie Lambe and Nahki Wells who might point to a prosperous future for the Islanders, with collegiate youngsters Keishan Bean, Tyrell Burgess and Antonio Lowe also showing plenty of promise in the following game.

With Sammy DeGraff and skipper Kwame Steede showing plenty of attacking brio ahead of Bean, who anchored the midfield impressively in Sunday's win, Bermuda had a far better balance about them and more 'know-how'.

Once again Kevin Richards showed his defensive versatility, filling in seamlessly at centre-half, and the predatory instincts of hat-trick hero Aljame Zuill will certainly provide Tucker with a striking quandary with Stephen Astwood and overseas pro John Barry Nusum both warranting starters jerseys.

Down either flank Bermuda also possess a plethora of pacey options with Damon Ming, a fit-again Domico Coddington, the much improved Lashun Dill not to forget MLS star Khano Smith.

But while Bermuda seem to unearth plenty of players of this exciting mould one product painfully lacking from their production line is a 'old-fashioned' centre-half with a blood-thirst for the aerial battle.

It's a problem Bermuda Hogges are still looking to solve ahead of their next USL-D2 season, and Tucker has already publicly conceded that's the position giving him the most concern.

For while Daruis Cox performed the role reasonably well against St.Kitts, he is not the long-term answer and is still better deployed as a full-back.

Currently, there's no clear candidate of that ilk to play alongside Omar Shakir when Bermuda's World Cup qualifying campaign kicks-off against Cayman. All good teams are built from the back and Tucker must ensure his team's attacking invention isn't undermined because of foundations built on sand.