DEEP BAY, Antigua — One good thing coming out of Jamaica’s distasteful performance at the CFU Caribbean Cup is that the players have pointed the finger of blame on themselves.

They sought no excuses for crashing out of the tournament that they entered as defending champions as the worst performing team with only a point, which effectively entombed them to the preliminary stage.

Team captain Shavar Thomas, who would be quick to give a failing grade of his very own performance, said the team’s performance was inexcusable.

“Yes, I am very disappointed we didn’t make it to the semi-finals… it (performance) was below-par based on the quality that we have in the squad, but as a team sometimes there will have to be more than the skill and I think we fell short in that aspects,” said the Montreal Impact defender.

“Honestly for me, and if you ask other players in the group, there is no excuse as we are professionals who were expected to do a job… as I have said the quality in the squad is more than capable of handling any of these teams that have beaten us,” said the player, who was groomed for international football having come up through Jamaica’s national youth system.

Thomas said while the team did poorly and has itself to blame, it’s not the end of the road as the dream of Jamaica reaching a second World Cup Finals is still on and the “focus” must now be trained there.

“Everyone, even us players, expected to move on to the semi-finals (of Caribbean Cup), but that wasn’t to be so we have to just go back to basics and now turn our focus on the World Cup qualifiers coming up and put all our energy into it as that’s the only positives that’s there right now.

“Being on the field with the players and also watching from the bench, you can see the effort, but I guess the bounce just did not go our way… the only good thing is that we will have a quick turnaround as we look to the World Cup qualification in February,” Thomas told the Jamaica Observer in a quick chat at the team’s hotel here.

He said while Jamaica were the top-ranked team coming to the Eastern Caribbean, all the other teams in their zone were pumped up and motivated to take down the champion, and it could be safe to say that the Jamaicans took the opposition for granted as was evidenced in the performance and results.

“We just have to learn from this tournament that every team came here to beat Jamaica, and if you look at it, we are the only team (from the Caribbean) still in the qualifiers, so this is their World Cup (other Caribbean teams), so if they can dethrone Jamaica that’s a plus for them,” Thomas noted.

Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner, another veteran of the current set-up and a France 1998 campaigner, was himself disappointed with the team’s rendition and attributed the outcome to a casual approach by the Jamaicans.

“To be honest it was a poor competition and we should be doing better in these tournaments… we now just have to dust ourselves off and move forward in the best way possible. It shows that we have to prepare ourselves in the right manner for every game as I thought we took the first two games lightly and it ended up surprising us… in the future we have to approach these games in a professional manner,” said the former Bolton Wanderers star.

Gardner, 34, who was returning to the Boyz fold after a three-year absence, said as he is wallowing in disappointment, he is also rejoicing having been given the opportunity to play again.

“I am just thankful to be back out there playing; it was a disappointment, but I just have to look at the positives… I have been out 10 months not playing football and I thank God for the opportunity to be doing what I love…

“I want to just improve on my fitness and just enjoy every single moment of playing again,” said the left-sided player who made a solid return, having figured as subs in two games and playing the full 90 minutes in the other.