KINGSTON, Jamaica — Head coach of Trinidad and Tobago’s senior men’s national football team, and former Manchester United striker, Dwight Yorke, says he is stunned that Jamaica emerged with all three points following their FIFA World Cup Qualifying Group B clash at the National Stadium on Tuesday.

The Reggae Boyz secured a 2-0 victory in front of 27,000 home supporters, extending their winning streak in World Cup Qualifying to six matches, the first time Jamaica has achieved such a run since their historic 1998 campaign.

But Yorke insists the scoreline did not reflect the balance of play.

“Sometimes you don’t really get what you put in. It’s a tough one to swallow for us tonight,” Yorke said after the defeat.

The Trinidad and Tobago coach also expressed frustration at what he described as questionable refereeing decisions, which he believes disrupted his team’s focus.

“We all know that goals really change the momentum in the game,” Yorke explained. “We felt we scored a genuine goal [in the] first half. We felt also about a penalty which we should have gotten and that wasn’t given.”

“You look at the database and everything else; we controlled the game. They’ve been given two chances, and they took those two chances.”

Despite the setback, Yorke urged his players to remain positive.

“We can’t change the dynamic of the results now, but what we can control is what’s in front of us,” he said.

“We play Bermuda next; that is a must-win game to get us back into the thick of things. It’s certainly not over; there is a lot of points to be played. We know how football changes, and we have seen it tonight. We felt that we should have gotten something from the game, and we did not.”

The result marked Jamaica’s eighth victory over Trinidad and Tobago in World Cup qualifying history. The two sides have now met 18 times, with 10 draws between them.

After two matches, Trinidad and Tobago sit third in Group B with one point, trailing Curaçao on four points and leaders Jamaica with six. With only the group winners guaranteed an automatic berth at next year’s FIFA World Cup, Yorke stressed that his side still has time to regroup.

“I have been in football long enough, and you know how quickly things can change. We can’t really worry about what is happening. We know that the next game in front of us, Bermuda, is a crucial one, and that’s our main objective at the moment,” he reiterated.

The next international window in October will see Jamaica travel to Curaçao on the 10th before hosting Bermuda at the National Stadium four days later.

— Brian Pitter