Jamaica's Luton Shelton (right) celebrates scoring a goal with teammate Dane Richards, during the opening Digicel Caribbean Championship football match against Barbados at the National Stadium. Jamica won 2-1 and went on to top Group A with seven points. Both strikers are key to Jamaica's goal of winning the championship. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Western Bureau:

While coach John Barnes was not exactly a happy man on Sunday afternoon in the aftermath of Jamaica's 1-1 draw against arch-rivals Trinidad & Tobago, in their Digicel Caribbean Championships fixture at the Trelawny Mini-Stadium, Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) boss, Captain Horace Burrell, was quite pleased.

Barnes described the team's performance as the worst of their three Group One games, bemoaning the absence of the tactical discipline they showed in their earlier games against Barbados and Grenada.

"We did not play with any tactical or positioning discipline," said Barnes, who made no effort to hide his disappointment. "All I am happy about is that we didn't lose and that we are in the semi-final."

Happy for qualification

However, Captain Burrell, who steered clear of any tactical assessment, was both pleased and relieved that the Reggae Boyz had qualified for both the semi-finals of the Digicel Caribbean Championship and had secured their place in next year's Gold Cup Tournament.

"I am extremely happy that we have qualified for the Gold Cup after the disappointment of not making it into the final phase of the World Cup qualifiers," Captain Burrell told The Gleaner yesterday. "It shows that we have what is needed to rebuild for the future."

While he is happy about the team's qualification for the Gold Cup, Captain Burrell said he will not settle for anything less that winning the coveted Digicel Caribbean Championship, which he hopes will somewhat ease the lingering disappointment of Jamaica's failed World Cup campaign.

"We have no choice but to win," stated Captain Burrell. "Reaching the semi-final is not enough. We need to make a statement to the sponsors and the fans that we are worthy of their future support."

Like Captain Burrell, coach Barnes wants to see the team going all the way and according to him, he is definitely not prepared to accept performances like the team's unacceptable showing against Trinidad and Tobago.

"We cannot choose when to perform and when not to perform," said Barnes, as he further reflected on the team's performance against Trinidad and Tobago. "It was a bad per-formance, no question about that."

Keep fans happy

Highlighting the need to keep the fans and the sponsors happy, Captain Burrell made it clear that he has no intention of dishing out any additional disappointment on them, hence the need to win the Digicel Cup as a form of consolation for the World Cup disappointment.

"We need to make our fans and sponsors happy because their support is vital to the future of our football," noted Captain Burrell. "As you can see, we have good talent, but we need support to provide the exposure needed to enhance their development so that we can have a bright future."

Picture of dejection

Unlike Jamaica, the camp of eight times champions Trinidad & Tobago, which surprisingly failed to qualify for the competition's semi-final, was a picture of dejection as they prepared to return home to what could well be an uneasy reception.

While subtly suggesting that they have a so-called 'bigger fish to fry' in regards to their World Cup campaign, when Trinidad and Tobago's captain Aurtis Whitley was contacted at the team's hotel in Montego Bay yesterday, he said the disappointment of the team ran deep.

"We came here expecting to take home this title so we are naturally very disappointed that we are out," said Whitely, who refused to go into details about the team's overall performances. "We will be reviewing our performance with a view of putting things right for our upcoming World Cup games."