ST THOMAS, US Virgin Islands — Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Boyz, in far from conducive conditions, managed to produce hints of their class when they brushed aside Guyana 4-1 in their Group Four Caribbean Football Union (CFU) World Cup qualifying tournament at the Lionel Roberts Stadium here yesterday.

The Young Boyz were led by a brace from Raewin Senior in the 61st and 72nd minutes, with other efforts coming from Jamoi Topey (16th minute) and Kaheem Parris (64th).

Guyana generated hope for a comeback and possibly victory when Roberto Sewell-Case pulled a goal back in the 31st minute to end the first half tied with the more celebrated Jamaicans 1-1.

But that auspicious scoreline from a Guyana perspective was short-lived even as this Jamaica team clearly did not play to their full potential. The reason for that could be due to any number of factors, starting with the horrible turf, the searing afternoon sun, or simply by the players’ own design.

But Head Coach Andrew Edwards had his own thoughts as far as that issue was concerned.

“This is the first game in the tournament and there is a lot of pressure on the team to perform, and I want to believe to some extent that played a part in the performance in the first period, especially.

“But bigger than that, I think there was an attitudinal problem where the guys did not give a full effort once they realised their dominance and their superiority, and that is something we have to fix. But I am very happy that we were able to show our class to come away with the three points, and that was the most critical thing,” he told the

Jamaica Observer.

The Guyana tactician Anthony Stephens believes going down to 10 players with about 30 minutes or so to play, when they lost Cosmos De Santos to injury, damaged any hopes his team had for a fightback.

“In the second half, we had a poor decision by the goalkeeper who ended up clashing with his own defender and that player had to be taken out of the game, and at that point we had already made our three changes. After that, we had to be on the defending end straight because we were a man down,” he lamented.

Before Jamaica broke the deadlock, they showed their offensive intentions early when the slippery Parris had a well-struck effort held by Guyana goalkeeper, Sese Norville.

On at least two occasions early, midfield mastermind and skipper Jeremy Verley had ambitious efforts, missing the frame marginally.

But the most telling move for the Young Boyz in the first round came when central defender, the towering Topey, demonstrated to his attacking colleagues his predatory abilities when he scrambled home from close range after indecision in the 18-yard box by others.

Spurred on by the goal, the Jamaicans started to impose themselves on affairs with their passing, and at times with boast, but somehow in all of that, they seemed to have dozed off.

Guyana’s footballers, known as the Jaguars, conjured up the spirit of the revered cat that roams the country’s jungle, delivering a deadly blow in the 31st minute that gave hope of a revival.

After pushing Jamaica back with an attractive spell of football highlighted by short passing in the midfield and use of the flanks, the Guyanese pounced with deadly accuracy when Sewel-Case beat Tajay Griffiths from just outside the box with a right-footed curler that clipped the post on its way in.

But on the resumption, the Boyz demolished any lofty ideas their opponents may have had by taking the lead again when Senior headed home from close up in the 61st minute after a couple of his teammates toyed around too long in penalty area.

Just three minutes later — though not having an iconic master predator to boast of, but no doubt imbued with the soul of one — the Jamaicans went for the jugular.

Parris, a terrorising force who stalked both flanks throughout the game, scored an individual goal when he cut inside from the right with his favourite left foot, and danced past two helpless defenders before unleashing a low shot from the edge of the goal area to set his team homeward bound.

And for good measure, Senior added the frills later on when he volleyed home from 16 yards.

In the second game of the double-header, hosts US Virgin Islands and Antigua and Barbuda were due to face each other.

Jamaica will play their second game of three tomorrow when they tackle Antigua and Barbuda and close out their campaign against the hosts on Tuesday.

Only the winners of the six qualifying groups and the best overall second-place team will advance to the eight-team Caribbean finals, where they will join hosts Trinidad and Tobago for the September 16-25 CFU finals.

The top-five will advance to the CONCACAF Under-17 Men’s Championship slated for Panama in April next year.

The FIFA Under-17 Men’s World Cup will be staged in India next summer.

Teams: Jamaica — Tajay Griffiths, Kendall Edwards, Jeremy Verley (Cobi Atkinson 75th), Jamoi Topey (Renato Campbell 45th), Nickashie Murray, Kaheem Parris, Raewin Senior, Omar Thompson (Chad Letts 68th), Blake White, Casseam Priestley, Kimani Gibbons.

Subs not used: Daniel Russell, Romario McPherson, Triston Briscoe, Jordan Petrekin, Damani Osei, Allen Cal-Wayne

Booked: Topey (22nd)

Guyana — Sese Norville, Jeremy Garrett, Javier Smith (Cosmos De Santos 45th), Ackel Forde, Malachi Adonis, Joshua Ferreira, Daniel Floy, Lorenzo Miller (Rondel Peter 41st), Cecil Jackman, Nicholas McArthur (Omar Brewley 55th), Robert Sewel-Case.

Subs not used: Kevin Padmore, Kobe Durrant, Tyrel Khan, Omar Alwin Franklin, Jonathan Copeland.

Booked: None

Referee: Kimbel Ward (St Kitts)

Assistant Referees: Kenroy Williams (Cayman), Mario Parry (St Kitts)

Fourth Official: Tristley Bassue (St Kitts)