by EZRA STUART

A TACTICAL MASTER-PLAN paid dividends for Barbados in their 3-0 win over St Vincent and the Grenadines in a Group G Digicel Caribbean Cup second round qualifying football match at the National Stadium on Tuesday night.

Both head coach Eyre Sealy and technical adviser Keith Griffith said the secret behind the victory was some behind-the-scene work and adopting a strategy of closely marking their influential footballers.

"We had St Vincent scouted a couple times by the technical adviser and we did a bit of scouting as well here Sunday night (when they played Bermuda) and we decided that they were three players that had to be marked out of the game to stop St Vincent from functioning," Sealy told reporters after the match.

"We went after the three of those players really hard and that played a good part in the victory. St Vincent hardly had a shot or a sniff in the whole game and that was because we were able to limit the three of those guys from functioning."

Griffith was even more direct, revealing the Vincy ballers which Barbados targetted.

"The key to the victory was Elvis Defreitas' marking on Shandel Samuel, their top goalscorer, who was substituted, John Parris on Kendol Velox, their playmaker, and Dwight James, who marked out his namesake (Marlon James), the other striker. It denied them any scoring opportunities with the defence marshalled by Rommell Brathwaite playing brilliantly," Griffith said.

Sealy lauded his charges for a superlative performance.

"I feel good but the credit really belong to the players. They are the ones who did the job and were committed to the task. They came after it really hungry tonight (Tuesday) and got a good result," he said.

"But it is an important victory. All victories are good and I feel we got better victories to come. We've set out on a mission from the time we started just over a couple months ago so there is a lot more to come," Sealy said.

Tonight, Barbados face a tricky assignment against the improving Bermuda, who need to win by a two-goal margin to be assured of a place in the finals.

In eight previous matches between the two countries, Barbados have won five times, including 2-1 and 4-0 victories the last time the teams met in a goodwill series in Bermuda, while losing twice and drawing once.

Griffith said the team will be using the same winning format, which may include paying close attention to Bermuda's two key players, No.11 Khano Smith, who plays for New England Revolution and No.9 John Barry Nusum.