CATHERINE HALL, St James — Head coach of the Jamaican senior women’s team Lorne Donaldson gave his team a ‘C’ grade after their 1-0 win over Paraguay in the first of their two-game international friendly series at the Montego Bay Sports Complex here on Thursday night.

Veteran defender Alysson Swaby scored her first goal for the national team, firing back a rebound past Paraguay’s outstanding goaltender Alicia Bobadilla two minutes into time added in the second half as the Jamaicans were returning to action for the first time since they qualified for back-to-back Fifa World Cups.

While saying it was good to win the game, Donaldson ventured to say that there is a lot of work to be done. He believes his team should have killed off the game from the first half.

Playing in cool conditions after late evening showers and in front of a small, but appreciative crowd, the Jamaicans dominated the first half, but Bobadilla came up big to thwart Jamaica’s Khadija “Bunny” Shaw and company as the home team threatened to win the game from the first half.

Shaw, who was on Thursday morning named Player of the Month of October in the Women’s Super League in England, missed no fewer than three chances including hitting the crossbar in the 27th minute.

It was these misses that have the coach feeling the pinch of disappointment.

“I thought in the first half we should have put the game away, but that is football,” Donaldson told the Jamaica Observer after the game. “We missed some chances and the Paraguayans, they came out in the second half and was well organised and were hard to break down, but expected them to be tough and they showed it tonight.”

Swaby, who took the captain’s arm band after Shaw was substituted in the 66th minute, was first to a rebound from a corner in the 92nd minute and fired it back past Bobadilla who, up to that point, was a wall in front of the Jamaicans.

“Winning at the end is good, it is always exciting for the fans, but its is not exciting for the coach,” Donaldson lamented.

His disappointment was strikingly displayed when he ventured to grade the performance. “[It’s] a C, I did not think anything was excellent, we played well enough to win, but I did not see anything excellent,” noted Donaldson.

He added: “You are always satisfied to win, but there were times when I thought we could have played a lot better…we started well and then we faded, but you have to give the Paraguayans credit [as] they took away some of what we were trying to do.”

In dark, Donaldson saw some light.

“Some of our players are fighting for spots [on the team to the World Cup] and we saw them come out and performed and showed us what they can do,” he noted.

Meanwhile, goal-scorer Swaby shared her perspective on the game.

“We came out strong and had a lot of possession, but in the second half, we lost a bit of concentration, but ultimately we fought to the end and that was what gave us the goal.”

Going into Sunday’s game, Swaby thinks the defensive unit has to be more cohesive.

“The back line can be a bit sharper, step up quicker, close the gaps better and just finishing off the chances. We created a lot of chances and that was a game we could have put away earlier, so we will try to do that next time,” she told reporters.