They knew before they left that they were in for the biggest challenge of their footballing lives.

But nothing could have prepared Bermuda?s Under-20 team for the abject thrashing they received yesterday at the hands of rampant hosts Haiti in the first game of their World Cup qualifying campaign.

In conditions that could hardly have been more alien to the young Bermudians, the supremely talented group favourites went into half-time in the town of St. Marc four goals up, before a Shakir Smith header after 52 minutes gave Bermuda the flimsiest of lifelines.

But once Haiti had notched their fifth goal after 64 minutes, the writing was well and truly on the wall and an increasingly stretched Bermuda could do absolutely nothing to prevent wave after wave of Haitian attacks as the hosts rounded off the annihilation with a further six strikes.

The humbling result means Bermuda need to beat both Jamaica tomorrow and the Netherlands Antilles on Saturday to progress through to the next phase of qualifying ? though assistant coach Paul Scope admitted last night that picking the boys up after such a humiliation was going to be a tough task.

?A loss like this would be difficult for any team to take and we?re certainly no different,? said Scope.

?Believe it or not we started the match quite brightly and (skipper) Keishen Bean had an early chance for us to take the lead. But after that we never really looked like scoring and we struggled to cope with their pace and movement.

?They had an absolutely sensational player in the centre of midfield who we couldn?t deal with and even after we got a goal back after half-time through Shakir, they carried on making life extremely difficult for us.?

Not a man who usually makes excuses, Scope was keen to stress that the team?s preparations since arriving in the most poverty-stricken nation in the Caribbean on Saturday had been fraught with difficulty ? from arranging suitable food and securing the appropriate training times to communicating with the outside world.

Having expected to play Haiti in the sprawling capital Port au Prince, Bermuda were told at the last minute that their game had been relocated to St. Marc ? a two-and-a-half hour drive from their hotel.

And the true extent of the poverty in the country has left some of the less-well travelled members of the squad clearly shell-shocked.

?We knew what to expect ? but even still it?s been absolute pandemonium down here,? said Scope, speaking by cell phone from the team bus, shortly after seeing a man lying on the pavement in St. Marc with blood ?pouring from his head?.

?Of course, Haiti made sure that the schedule suits them down to the ground and have made it as difficult as possible for the visiting teams.

?So it was only late on Monday night that we found out that we were not playing in Port au Prince, and that the kick-off had for some reason been moved from the evening to the middle of the afternoon when the day is at its hottest.

?We spoke with the players before we left about what it would be like, but even still some of them have found the environment down here a real challenge and it?s certainly been a massive eye-opener for most of them.

?Saying that though we?ve just got to get on with it and that starts with beating Jamaica on Thursday. Of course, we know they are going to be a very good side, but I?m expecting a much-improved performance from the boys.

?Kyle and I still believe very strongly in the ability of this squad ? and we?re not going to change our minds because of one very bad defeat.?