All local footballers should be used to playing on poor pitches ? but the shocking and potentially dangerous nature of the surface for tonight?s opening Digicel Cup game has prompted considerable concern in the Bermudian camp.

Kyle Lightbourne?s men take on hosts US Virgin Islands at 8 p.m. Bermuda time in St. Thomas? Lionel Roberts stadium ? a decidedly ramshackle arena designed for baseball which has been converted into a football venue for the three-team tournament to be broadcast live on local television.

While one side of the pitch has a reasonably healthy covering of grass, the other is essentially just loose soil, and along one touchline there is a 40-yard wooden plank embedded into the ground which sticks up above the level of the turf and is covered with protruding nails.

After a journey south without any headaches on Monday, Bermuda went through a light training session at the stadium last night ? concentrating deliberately on their set-play routines and taking regular water breaks to counteract the oppressive humidity.

But afterwards both Lightbourne and assistant coach Paul Scope were quick to voice their displeasure at the pitch?s quality.

?We knew the conditions weren?t going to be great before we got down here ? but this pitch is a little bit of a shocker,? said Scope.

?It?s a baseball stadium really and home plate is pretty much right on one of the corner flags which means on the far side of the ground where there hasn?t been that much activity the grass is still good, but within the actual diamond it is almost like playing on sand and one of the goalmouths is in pretty bad shape.

?We?re also concerned about that plank of wood along the touchline, which obviously represents the foul line when they?re playing baseball.

?It?s only a yard or so beyond the touchline, it?s not flush with the ground and it?s got nails sticking up out of it.

?It?s potentially very dangerous for anybody operating up and down that wing and we will be having a word with the match commissioner about it because as far as we?re concerned something has to be done.?

Asked whether the nature of the pitch would provoke a change in approach or tactics for tonight?s game, which is expected to attract close to 1,000 spectators, Lightbourne was unequivocal.

?We certainly won?t be encouraging the guys to knock the ball around on the floor,? he said.

?When you play on bad pitches, errors at the back because of bad bounces or slips happen a lot so we?ll be asking our defenders to put safety first and we certainly won?t be looking to pass the ball around in our own penalty area!

?In an ideal world, of course, we?d have liked to play on something better, but it?s the same for both teams and we?ll just have to get on with it and try and get it out of our minds.?

The starting XI for tonight?s game will not be announced until later today, with the management wishing to sit down with each player individually this morning to explain their decisions.

On the injury front, veteran skipper Kentoine Jennings has been the only concern so far, having rolled his ankle in a training session just prior to departure.

The North Village centre back has been passed fit to play, however, after being assessed by a specialist on Monday evening and is looking forward to leading what he believes is a very ?young and exciting side?.

?I definitely feel like the grandfather of the team,? said the 35-year old yesterday over breakfast at the team hotel, which is perched just above the picturesque Emerald Bay beach.

?I?ve been involved in football for a lot longer than most of the guys in the squad and I actually coached Keishen Bean and Tyrell Burgess when they were playing at Under 15 level.

?It?s exciting in a way to have watched these guys develop from young and now to have the pleasure and the privilege of leading them out onto the field to represent our country.

?We come into this tournament as favourites, and certainly from an attacking standpoint I think we?ve got a lot of options and there certainly won?t be any shortage of chances. I just hope we?re able to take them.

?We?re a little short defensively in that we?ve only brought five out-and-out defenders with us, but we?ve got guys who can adapt to different positions quite easily so I don?t expect there to be any problems.

?We?ve come here to win the group and qualify for the next round ? and let?s hope that we can do that.?

Bermuda play the Dominican Republic on Friday evening at the same time before flying home the next day.

Although the British Virgin Islands dropped out of the competition last week, the top two teams from the group still go through to the next round-robin qualifying stage in November, where Bermuda must again finish in the top two to progress to the eight-team Caribbean Cup finals in Trinidad this coming January.