Nickalia Fuller’s maiden goal wins it for Reggae Boyz in Grenada
Nickalia Fuller scored his first goal for Jamaica as the Reggae Boyz defeated Grenada 1-0 at the Kirani James Stadium as they continued their preparation for their FIFA World Cup playoff against New Caledonia in March.
Fuller, who represents Tivoli Gardens FC, netted the winner in the 75th minute, handing interim head coach Rudolph Speid a winning start to his coaching stint for Jamaica.
The Reggae Boyz have now beaten Grenada for the 10th time in 13 games and coach Speid was more than pleased as he saw some positives in the things he tried to implement.
“What we’re looking for is to see if the players will play as we trained and I think, largely, we would have achieved that. So, they did play as we trained, moved the ball around, felt comfortable on the ball, and that is what is pleasing for us,” said Speid.
“We’ll have to go back and look at the tape to review what transpired because it’s difficult when you’re coaching to see everything. So, we’ll see if all of our, whatever tactics we had tried to employ, were implemented and who was doing them fairly well,” he added.
Speid gave debuts to Nickyle Ellis of Racing United, Tafari Chambers (Mount Pleasant), Dwight Merrick (Dunbeholden FC) and Nico Brown (Lexington SC).
Twenty-one players and 16 from the local Jamaica Premier League all got playing time against Grenada as Speid tried to give everybody minutes.
“We hope to get another game also to see more players before we make our final deliberations to pick a squad that will be in March 26th and 31st,” he noted.
The Reggae Boyz are ranked 70th in the world, with Grenada’s Spice Boyz coming in at 164. The Jamaicans are ranked eighth in Concacaf but currently sit second in the Caribbean behind Haiti.
“We have been the number one team in the Caribbean for a long period. Our ego has been bruised. People believe that we are ripe for the picking now. So, they are going to come after us. I really appreciate the effort that Grenada put out. Thanks to them,” said Speid.
Grenada is coached by Anthony Modeste, who played for Portmore United for a number of years, even winning the JPL.
“They gave us a hard time. It’s something that we need going into the qualifiers. So, it was a welcome match,” Speid pointed out.
“ I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Except for them to fight us very hard, and they did. Congrats to the coach,” he added.
