CATHERINE HALL, St James — Reggae Boyz  Head Coach Theodore Whitmore says consistency will be key for his charges, as they kick off the Concacaf Nations League (CNL) Group B schedule against Antigua and Barbuda at Montego Bay Sports Complex tomorrow.

Despite some off-field issues being faced by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Whitmore pointed out that they can’t afford to get sidetracked with a place in the Concacaf hexagonal for World Cup qualifiers at stake for the Reggae Boyz, currently ranked in fourth position.

Three key members of the squad — Shamar Nicholson, Dever Orgill, and Jamoi Topey — were due into the island yesterday, but even that cannot be used as an excuse not to do well.

“Where we are in this programme now, it’s just about connecting the dots, it makes no sense sitting down and complaining, we are at a critical point in the programme, and we have to find solutions and make it work to the best of our abilities,” Whitmore told the Jamaica Observer, following a training session at the match venue yesterday.

Topey plays in the United States for Pennsylvania-based Bethlehem Steel; Nicholson recently joined Belgian club Sporting Charleroi, where he scored a spectacular goal on his debut last weekend, while Orgill plays for Turkish club Ankaragücü.

Whitmore revealed that while he has a starting team in mind, they had to wait for the other players to arrive.

“So we can look at the situation with them as they are travelling from far, and we have to wait and see where they are when they get here,” the tactician reasoned.

The former Reggae Boyz star echoed the sentiments of JFF boss Michael Ricketts and team manager Roy Simpson when he stated the importance of the team maintaining their position in Concacaf.

“It is important what we do from here on leading into the World Cup qualifying. Consistency is going to be important. We are fourth in Concacaf and it’s crucial that we stay there, so every game that we play from here on in is going to be important.”

Finally, Whitmore again stressed the need for high level concentration in order to complete the job at hand.

“It’s not just what we do on the field that is going to be important, so it’s what we do off the field as well that will help to determine how far we go. The JFF has a lot of off the field issues to deal with and as much as possible, we don’t want to get caught up in that. We want to do what we can do with what we have; we have to just go out there and work,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Simpson, who was also at the training session, had told the Observer that they were not satisfied with their position in the previous round of Concacaf Nations League. “We believe we should be in the elite group, so we now understand that we want to be in the top six. That is what we are focusing on. We are fourth and we want to at least maintain that position or move up.”

Squad: Andre Blake, Amal Knight, Jeadine White, Fabion McCarthy, Damion Lowe, Adrian Mariappa, Kemar Lawrence, Shaun Francis, Devon Williams, Alvas Powell, Chavany Willis, Andre Lewis, Je-Vaughn Watson, Leon Bailey, Alex Morgan, Bobby Reid, Junior Flemmings, Brian Brown, Dever Orgill, Corey Burke, Shamar Nicholson, Peter Vassell, Kevaughn Isaacs.