Interim Head Coach Xavier Gilbert has pushed back against criticism of how the Reggae Girlz approached their 1-1 draw with Panama in their penultimate Concacaf W Gold Cup Qualifier at the National Stadium on Wednesday.

The National Senior Women’s team needed to win the game in order to stay in contention for an automatic qualifying spot, but the sharing of the points meant Panama topped the three-team group with seven points, while Jamaica sit third with two points and a must-win game on Sunday against second place Guatemala on four points to make the playoffs next February.

While admitting they had chances to win the match, Gilbert told the Jamaica Observer that he always had one eye on the fixture with the Guatemalan women.

“I’m pretty pleased, to be honest. I know it was going to be difficult; we really wanted the win. We did what we had to do to create opportunities; we just didn’t manage the amount of goals we needed to win,” he said.

“We have to be mindful and be smart. This is a team coming from the World Cup, [that has] been experienced and playing together for years and we know the threat they possess and we can’t leave ourselves vulnerable and allow them to capitalise, so [we] were cautious in terms of the things we do and we managed to get a point out of the game. We’re still in and we just have to win against Guatemala on Sunday and hopefully that will we’ll be in the play-offs,” said Gilbert.

Gilbert also praised 18-year-old Shaneil Buckley who became the youngest player ever to score for the senior Reggae Girlz and 19-year-old Davia Richards, two players whose development he’s overseen during their time at Excelsior High School.

“I’m happy with the way they performed; they have been growing and developing nicely. Davia just won an award and [was] selected for All-American in the National Junior College first team, so congratulations to her. Buckley, I’m happy for her. She has been knocking on the door; she’s the leading goal-scorer in high school and the women’s premier league and deserving of an opportunity at this level and she has been given it and repaid us and her country well,” he said.

After a 2-2 draw in October at the National Stadium, Gilbert and the squad fly to Guatemala City for Sunday’s contest with one aim in mind.

“We’re going to approach it like we did the first game. We saw some areas we can exploit and I think we have a little bit more firepower to be more dominant in those areas, that’s what we’re going to be focusing on. We’re going to give it our best shot; we’re going to go at them. We have a couple days to regroup. A lot of the ladies that played tonight are first-timers and now the confidence will be going, we’re just building and hopefully we can execute the game plan on Sunday and once we do that, we’ll be comfortable,” Gilbert said.

Sunday’s match, which kicks off at 7:00 pm, will determine who advanced to the play-offs set for February 17 in the USA to contend for one of the three remaining spots for the Gold Cup, beginning on February 20.