Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz Assistant Coach Merron Gordon says the 1-1 result in the friendly international football match away to Cameroon on Wednesday is “something to build on” as the coaching staff continues planning for Concacaf Nations League and Gold Cup assignments next year.

Justin McMaster gave the Jamaicans a surprise 59th-minute lead in wet conditions inside Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaoundé. But Cameroon substitute Djawal Kaiba sent home fans at the venue — almost filled to its 42,500 seating capacity — into boisterous cheers when he scored from a deflected effort in the 74th minute.

While the Jamaicans would have felt they deservedly left with a share of the spoils because of the organised and gritty display, the World Cup-bound Indomitable Lions would have rued they weren’t able to translate their dominance in possession into chances created.

“The players really stuck in and with a little bit more composure we could have won this game,” Gordon told the Jamaica Observer shortly after the match.

“With a little bit of luck we probably would have won this game because it was a deflected shot on goal, but such is football. But this is something to build on,” he added.

Gordon, the assistant to Jamaica’s Icelandic Head Coach Heimir Hallgrimsson, said while the Reggae Boyz, made up of local-based and United States-based players, began the encounter tentatively, they came into their own as the match went on.

“We started off a bit slowly. I think the Boyz were chasing the ball too much, especially when they [the Cameroon players] had the ball in their defensive third. We wanted them [the Jamaicans] to kind of drop [off] and don’t let them play through our lines.

“We spoke about it at half-time and I think the Boyz took the instructions well. I think we got it right in the second half. I think how the Boyz played, especially in a game like this, in front of this 40,000-plus crowd was really, really good, especially with mostly local-based players,” Gordon said.

Hallgrimsson, after only his second match in charge of Jamaica’s senior men’s team, said he was proud of the effort despite clear signs that cohesion was lacking.

“I think this was a good result for Jamaica because [so] early in the season a lot of the players don’t have a lot of games under their belts. They were playing in a difficult environment — probably the biggest crowd most of the players have played [in front of]… so pretty intimidating circumstances,” he explained.

“I think we can be happy with the result, but I’m [happier] with the players and how they behaved, how professional they were in the camp and how much they took in of what we were trying to teach them,” Hallgrimsson said.

Both teams entered the contest without many of their elite footballers because the match was played outside the Fifa international window which rules out players based at European clubs.

Throughout the first half Cameroon were the more proactive of the teams, forcing Jamaica’s goalkeeper Jahmali Waite to make a handful of timely saves.

Otherwise, the Reggae Boyz, who were hardly able to string passes together, but were solid at the back thanks to the work of towering central defenders Damion Lowe and Jamoi Topey and defensive wide men Javain Brown and Ricardo Thomas, held their own.

The Rigobert Song-coached Indomitable Lions, using the match as preparation for the Fifa World Cup Finals set to start later this month in Qatar, indicated they are fully focused on the global showpiece when they substituted popular striker Vincent Aboubakar just before half time.

The teams entered the break locked at nil-all but the tempo picked up in the second half, especially after the Jamaicans took the lead.

It came from one of the rare times the Jamaicans were able to piece multiple passes together, as Thomas released a short pass to youthful midfielder Lamar Walker who sliced in field between two opponents before flicking a pass behind the high-pressing Cameroon defence.

McMaster timed his run to latch on to the pass and calmly slotted the ball into the net when he was one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

But Kaiba drove home the equaliser for Cameroon with a powerful right-footed shot from outside the box which deflected off Kevon Lambert’s outstretched leg to beat Waite.