Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz found Suriname at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, a tougher assignment than anticipated after they squeezed out a 2-1 victory.
A header from Corey Burke in the seventh minute of play and a penalty from Darren Mattocks in the 16th minute threatened to start a rout. However, Donnegy Fer’s 37th minute tap in marked Suriname’s entrance into the game.
While Jamaica would get a number of chances, to go further ahead, in truth, Suriname were dangerously close to equalizing on a number of occasions and could not be argued with if they believed they dropped at least two points from the game.
Mattocks, while happy with the win, believes the Jamaicans, with himself the most at fault, need to be more clinical if they are to enjoy further success, especially with El Salvador waiting in their next fixture.
“I’m disappointed in myself,” said Mattocks.
“A player of my caliber should put away most of those chances but at the end of the day an ugly win is better than a pretty loss,” he said.
“We’re just going to take the three points and move on and come ready for the next game.”
Mattocks believes the game against El Salvador is going to be much tougher.
“El Salvador is a very hostile environment so we have to go there really prepared,” he said.
“We can’t have a performance like this against El Salvador,” he said.
“We have to go back to the drawing board and these opportunities that we are creating we have to put them away,” he ended.
Jamaica now have three wins from their three games with 12 goals for and one against.
Their record is bettered by Haiti, who have the same number of wins but with 17 goals and one against, while Cuba have scored 14 goals without a response from their opponents.