Nahki Wells’s disappointing season with Bristol City could potentially work in Bermuda’s favour as they seek to make early roads in the Concacaf Nations League.

The striker, who celebrated his 32nd birthday yesterday, has fallen down the pecking order at the Sky Bet Championship club and was used mostly as a substitute last season.

He made just seven starts and netted three goals in 32 appearances, 25 of which were as a substitute in Nigel Pearson’s squad.

The Bermuda captain is now poised to lead the national team in their first match in group B of League B against Haiti at the Flora Duffy Stadium on Saturday, and reckons his disappointing campaign at Ashton Gate has given him more incentive to put his best foot forward.

“Not having the season I wanted this year, I probably have a little more of a chip on my shoulder and a bit more hungry to go out there and do well and score some goals,” Wells told the media during a press conference at the National Sports Centre North Field pavilion. “That’s the mentality I am taking into Saturday.

“I am always hungry and being able to lead us out is going to a huge honour for myself. I don’t think I have played in Bermuda and captained my country for quite some time, and so I am definitely looking forward to the opening fixtures.”

Wells concedes he and his fellow team-mates have their work cut out against group favourites Haiti but is cautiously optimistic they can come away with a positive result.

“Probably the toughest tie potentially for ourselves and the biggest one being at home against the potential favourites of our group,” he added. “We know what we are up against, but we also know what it’s like to play here and we will make that as difficult for them as possible.

‘“It’s always special playing in Bermuda; it’s very unique. It’s not something that many of us pretty much can express what it feels like to play in front of your country.

“The objective is to win the group, get back to League A and get automatic qualification into the Gold Cup. So that’s our main focus and we know more than likely if we want to get that we need to make sure we get points off Haiti starting on Saturday.”

As the group favourites, Wells reckons the pressure is more on Haiti than Bermuda.

“I do believe the pressure will be on them,” he said. “Knowing that expectations are more on them to probably get a result may ease a bit of pressure.

“But ultimately we know it’s not going to be easy playing them twice. We know their strengths, we know their weaknesses and hopefully we put right what we did wrong in those fixtures [previously against Haiti] on Saturday.

“They have a very talented squad who play all around the world. The majority of the team is at a very good level.

“They have the professional experience. But we have competed against them and we know what to expect. We have been able to exploit some of their problems at times and they have been able to hurt us at times as well.”

Wells is one of the surviving members of the Bermuda team that qualified for and competed at the Concacaf Gold Cup in 2019.

“The good thing is a we still have the core group of players from that team who went through that qualifying stage to get to the Gold Cup, to then compete in the Gold Cup, to then playing in the qualifiers last year with some new additions who deserve to be in that squad,” he added. “The core group of that team is still there, so for us it’s just going into this knowing what to kind of expect.”

As one of the most senior players on the national team, expectations will be high on Wells to deliver the goods in his role in the attacking third of the pitch.

“That naturally becomes a burden on your shoulders as one of the ones who is expected to perform and lead by example, so in my eyes it’s just another game,” Wells said.

“Obviously we are up against some very good countries. But when you play football for a living it’s kind of like another game we must go into trying to win.”

Bermuda will play their first away match against Guyana on June 7 at the National Track and Field Centre in Guyana at 5pm, before they then travel to the Dominican Republic to face Montserrat on June 11 (8.30pm).

The Gombey Warriors will then come home to play their return match against Montserrat on June 14 before closing out the group stage at home to Guyana and away to Haiti in March 2023.

The group winner will qualify for the 2023 Gold Cup, with the second-place finisher to compete among 12 other teams in preliminaries for the chance to qualify for the biennial event.

“This is a league format so we have to really think about how we go about it,” Kyle Lightbourne, the Bermuda coach, said. “It is not just a one-off game like the last time we played them, so we have to be very, very cautious how we approach this. This is what it’s about; we have to perform at our best.”

The former Walsall striker added: “It comes down to on the day for us. We have played them recently twice.

“The first game we were the better team first half and then they were the better team second half. The second time they pretty much dominated the game against us, but I feel that we are due a result against them at some point.”

Lightbourne and his fellow coaching staff have done their homework on their opponents.

“We looked at how Haiti have played against us and we are looking to do things to stop what happened basically,” he said. “We are just looking to stop them from causing us those problems and we are going to look to cause them problems, which we did cause them.

“In both of those matches we played we got the first opportunities to score. The first game we took the first one but we had several before then. And the second game we had the first opportunity as well and it always seems like when we are in a good space that’s when we have conceded goals, and that’s what happened in the second match.”

As for the team’s preparations in the final lead-up to the match, Lightbourne added: “I think things have gone fairly well. We’ve trained well, we’re working hard.

“We have put a lot of days in leading up to this. We still have a little more to do before the match starts, and hopefully that everybody plays to their maximum on Saturday.”