Hallgrimsson happy with Reggae Boy invites

Reggae Boyz coach Heimir Hallgrimsson is pleased with what he is seeing from a locally based Reggae Boyz squad, which secured a 2-0 victory over hosts Montego Bay United (MBU) in a practice match yesterday at Wespow Park in Montego Bay.

“It was a good match just to see them play together, play as pairs and as lines of four and two. A match will give you much more than a training session, so it is good to see them in action live. When that happens, we can see mistakes happen that we need to correct and etcetera,” Hallgrimsson said

Asked about any players in particular that stood out today in the game, Hallgrimsson preferred to talk about what he saw collectively.

“There were some players that showed really what we have been drilling and that they understood and they were trying to do that. That, for me, is the most important thing. If we are drilling something, I can see that once we are playing the match. Sometimes it’s about individuals when you step on the field, especially for national team, you want to show how good you are. Really what we want to see from them is how good they are in a team.”

Hallgrimsson praised MBU, who were largely Jamaica Premier League fringe players yesterday. MBU coach Neider dos Santos said the performance gave him confidence.

“We have a very important match on Sunday, and the players’ style of play today makes me confident that I can use any of them. In today’s match, some of the players aren’t match-fit, but you could see them performing against the Premier League players. What I noticed is that the size of the players was very different. The opponents were taller than us. I cannot even complain, but the match, overall, I think was good. We created chances, we played very organised, and I was very happy for our programme to have that match,” Dos Santos explained.

Garth Stewart opened the scoring in the 10th minute while Joel Cunningham doubled the score in the 72nd.

In the first half, Stewart took advantage of a free kick and quickly gave his team the lead.

MBU had the better of play after going behind but never seemed to be able to find that quality in the final third that would have brought them back into the game.

Given multiple chances to equalise, it was just not on the cards for them yesterday.

In the 72nd minute, Cunningham made MBU pay for their profligacy, securing the win with a well-taken goal stemming from a nice build-up.