CATHERINE HALL, St James — Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz needed to win the Caribbean Football Union’s Caribbean Cup to restore some credibility in the programme that had taken a battering, says team manager Roy Simpson.

Simpson, who led the celebration charge onto the field after Trinidad and Tobago’s Khalem Hyman missed the final kick in the penalty shoot-out at the Montego Bay Sports Complex on Tuesday night, said he never had any doubt the Jamaican team would have risen to the occasion.

“We knew that we needed to win the Caribbean Cup to bring back some credibility to the programme,” Simpson told the Jamaica Obsrever. “We took it seriously and we never doubted for a minute,” he added.

Winning the Caribbean Cup is one thing, he said, building on the victory would be more meaningful. “Hopefully, we can build on this foundation because this is what we want and we believe that if we are serious about Russia 2018, it has to start now and this is a good foundation.”

The Jamaican senior male team had won just twice in friendly internationals since last year and had come under a lot of pressure, but Simpson said the win will go a far way to bringing back fan confidence. “It’s good that we have won and the people have started believing again… we are now believing again and it only gets better going forward,” Simpson noted.

Jamaica’s win, he said, did not come by chance, but from all-round co-operation. “It’s a two-fold approach — the discipline and co-operation of the players and the staff and that was transmitted onto the pitch,” he said.

“The team played good, disciplined, entertaining, defensive football and that’s what you want to play, attractive football,” Simpson ended.