IT ended the way it started — a Jamaican head meeting a cross and 6,510 voices inside the National Stadium lifting the roof on Saturday night.

Captain and lead striker Khadija Shaw rose in the eighth minute. Shania Hayles did the same in the 88th. Two headers. Two bookends. For Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz, it is a story of control, chances, and a coach measuring progress in millimetres.

The 2-0 win over Guyana sealed Group B of the Concacaf Women’s Qualifiers in perfect fashion: four games, four wins, 12 points; 27 goals scored, two conceded. Nicaragua took second on nine points, Guyana placed third with six, while Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica finished on one apiece.

On paper, flawless. On grass, unfinished. The big issue, and everybody knows, is about the finishing in front of goal for the Reggae Girlz.

Head Coach Hubert Busby heard the concern and wore it. His team had battered Guyana for 90 minutes and left with only two goals. But there were a flood of chances in-between.

“I think it’s a situation where now we’ve to get over a little bit [of] mental [block] because we’ve been creating opportunities; the players and the quality is absolutely there as well. So sometimes you can kind of overthink, and I think that’s kind of happening now. — we’re overthinking it a bit.

“Listen, they are quality players. They’ll go back to it, we’ll get it right, but we’d be more concerned if we are not creating opportunities — but we are creating those opportunities,” Busby explained.

The Reggae Girlz suffocated Guyana. They pressed high, recycled possession, and fired at will. In the opening five minutes alone the Reggae Girlz had numerous shots at goal, only to be denied by the Guyana goalkeeper, the crossbar, and mistimed strikes.

“What would have obviously changed the game with goals, changed the game for us and allowed us to get on the ball a little more and move it and manage it a bit. But at the end of the day we found a way to get over the line, and that’s a good sign of a team. And, as I have said to them all of [the] time, it is not about perfection, it is about making progress — and you see how we are looking to play, and we get better each and every game,” the head coach said.

“I haven’t saw the stats this time but I guarantee you it’s over 70 per cent possession, over 20 shots on goal, and in fairness, their keeper made one or two saves to which, obviously, was credit to her,” Busby said. “But again, it’s just a little bit more clinical in front of goal.

That word — clinical — hung over the whole night. Shaw’s opener should have opened the floodgates. Hayles’ late header closed the door instead of swinging it wide an hour earlier.

“Well, we are only frustrated from the aspect of the players deserved obviously more. Again, something that we’ve been [in the last couple of games] trying to ensure, [that] we are better in front of goal. We’ve been a little more clinical but I think from the first whistle, even from in fact just watching from warm-up, the players were on it,” Busby stated.

The warm-up was a warning and Deneisha Blackwood had asked for it days before: Set the tone while the opposition watches.

“You could see that they were prepared, obviously. With our senior leadership group they were determined from the get-go, so I am frustrated in the sense I think we could have put the game away earlier, but I am obviously pleased with the performance in term of how we managed the game,” said Busby.

The surface fought back.

“I would say as well, having kind of gone on the pitch — and you guys have seen it — the ground has come up, and you’ve seen it a couple of times right in front of goal. You either take a bobble or you lose your footing, so those things were a little bit in factor as well,” Busby noted.

The Reggae Girlz — along with Mexico, Costa Rica, Haiti, Panama, and El Salvador — will now join the United States and Canada in the Concacaf Women’s Championship to be played in November.

“I think we have done a good job in monitoring their [players] progress and seeing how they are doing in their clubs. I think you know, the players who have been formed are the ones being selected, and you can see once they come into camp they’re in a good frame of mind but they are sharp and ready to go.

“So I think it is really important for them when they go back into their environment that they are playing, they’re doing well, and continuing to push the level. I think really, you know, we’ll have the chance to take this week and look at our reflection in terms of coaching staff and what we need to do to keep on improving as well so we can improve the group,” Busby affirmed.

June offers two windows to sharpen the edge. October demands it.

“And then it’s turn the page within probably at the end of the week. We’re turning to what happens within the June window and looking to maximise those two games in terms of preparations and how that sort of leeway into October,” he ended.

Jamaica’s Reggae Girl Trudi Carter (left) evades a challenge from Guyana’s Jenea Knight during the Concacaf Women’s Qualifier Group B encounter at the National Stadium on Saturday. Photos: Garfield Robinson