Naquita Robinson, the national womens football coach, says she is impressed by the courage and hard work ethic Bermuda demonstrated competing at the Caribbean Football Union Under-14 Challenge in Jamaica last week.

Bermuda finished third in their four-team group, which also comprised of Dominican Republic, Martinique and hosts and eventual tournament winners Jamaica, with one win and two losess to their credit.

“This team is going to be exciting to watch soon,” Robinson declared.

“Technically we are still a bit behind so the pace of the ball has eluded us at times.

“The girls have a lot of heart and work really hard.”

Bermuda suffered heavy 5-1 and 6-1 losses against Dominican Republic and Jamaica either side of a hard fought 4-3 triumph over Martinique in a seven-goal thriller at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence.

“We have been working on things in training leading up (to the tournament) and it was encouraging to see them trying to execute,” Robinson added.

The coach says there was still positives to take away from the heavy losses such as the one against Jamaica in her team’s final outing at the tournament last Friday.

“Jamaica’s second string team is very good,” Robinson added.

“We matched them and were doing very well. Our girls were very impressive and ran just as hard as they did.

“We had three players who needed minutes and they were up to the challenge, especially being so young.

“Our players were not phased by the fact they were playing Jamaica.

“At halftime there was a torrential downpour and when play resumed the surface played a little quicker. At this time Jamaica brought on their three top strikers who constantly ran at our backline.

“Everyone worked hard to keep them out. But they were relentless and eventually we conceeded.

“The girls never dropped their heads but fought hard till the end.”

Last week’s tournament served as preparation for next year’s Concacaf Girls Under-15 and Under-17 Championships which will feature some of the Bermuda’s players that recently competed in Jamaica.

“We have U15 next summer,” Robinson said. “The girls get four weeks off and we go right back at it.

“Some of these young ladies will play in the upcoming U17 tournament in March so training going to be intense.”