Favourites Jamaica had to shrug off a spirited rally by the Netherlands Antilles in the second half to pull of this two-goal victory in their opening match of the Under-17 World Cup qualifying tournament at the National Stadium last night.

Such was the dominance of Jamaica in the first half when they led 1-0 on a goal by Vivian Malcolm after 36 minutes one felt an easy victory was in the making, but instead the Antilles fought back gallantly and it took a goal by Richard West after 80 minutes to kill off their charge.

"We should have settled it by the interval. I think the performance was very disappointing. I don't know if it was the cool weather conditions that affected us, but the bottom line is to win and we accomplished that,'' said Jamaica coach Jackie Walters.

With Malcolm prominent up front and midfielders Leon Williams and Akeem Priestly a force throughout, Jamaica created numerous chances in the opening half while their opponents looked unsettled and offered very little in terms of attacking.

Antilles lost goalkeeper Ruduensley Giterson through injury after nine minutes and substitute Remi Wolff came on to do a stupendous job in deputising.

Centre-back Riangelo Rodriques was also sharp in defence.

Wolff dramatically dived full length to push Malcolm's fierce 15-yarder around the post after 14 minutes, but he could no nothing to prevent Malcolm's opener after 36 minutes which roared home from 14 yards after a header by substitute Sean Buckner was cleared off the goal line.

Buckner then saw another fine header strike the leg of Wolff before being scrambled away.

As Jamaica built attack after attack the Antilles did little up front and were restricted to a single 22-yard shot by hard-working striker Mike Bremar.

But the trend changed after the break with Antilles obviously inspired by a pep talk from their coaches while Jamaica looked somewhat jaded.

Antilles did more attacking during the first 10 minutes after play re-started then they did during the entire first half but they were frustrated by poor finishing.

Pieterz Ramis was the main culprit putting two early efforts wide when in position to score after the defence looked sloppier and sloppier. But his big blunder came after 67 minutes when Eder Constancia crossed from the left only to see Ramis incredibly miskick from just six yards.

Substitute Jermaine Hardy and Conrad Hunt came close with chances for Jamaica before West netted their second goal by putting home a cross from Maurice Johnson.