With one win in the bag, Reggae Boyz head coach Steve McClaren is optimistic that his team will finish the job in the decisive contest of their two-match friendly series against Trinidad and Tobago at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Sunday night.

Game time is 8:00pm.

Following a hard-fought 1-0 victory in Montego Bay, McClaren’s squad will be aiming for an improved performance to make it a perfect two-from-two. However, the bigger picture remains clear—impressing the coach and staking a claim for selection in the upcoming Concacaf Gold Cup playoff against St Vincent and the Grenadines.

With Ranaldo Biggs sidelined due to a groin injury, Nickalia Fuller has been drafted in as his replacement—a decision McClaren admits was heavily influenced by a recent standout performance.

“Yeah, absolutely. I said to all the players, everybody's got an opportunity, and the more I can get around games and watch, the better their chances. I think I watched Rooney [Jashaun Anglin] for half a game, and we included him. I watched Tyreek [Magee] on video for 20 minutes and selected him. So every player has got a chance when I'm there and can watch them,” McClaren said in a pre-game interview.

Reflecting on the first-leg victory, McClaren expressed pleasure with how the Boyz delivered a performance that brought joy to the fans. Now, he wants them to do it again under the lights in Kingston.

"We said, give Jamaica a smile at the end of the game. And I think the fans were all smiling. The families were, the players were. And I said, now you got to repeat it. That's gone. We got to do it again. We want to come back to Kingston, get a good crowd, and we want to entertain. And if we can do that and perform well, win the game,” McClaren declared.

However, McClaren is under no illusions, as he is well aware that Trinidad and Tobago will be gunning for revenge. As such, he expects a much tougher contest from the Soca Warriors, who will be determined to leave Jamaica with a share of the spoils.

“Absolutely. I'd be the same. I'd be, well, okay, that one. But we want to win the second one. So it's exactly the same. We've said to the players, look, you know, this is a Jamaican Reggae Boyz team. This is not a B team, C team, or local team. This is the proper team. This is the seniors, and we don't play friendlies,” he stressed.

“Everybody wants to beat Jamaica, and I think Trinidad wants to beat us a lot more than probably other nations do. So we have to go into the contest exactly like we did on Thursday with that great attitude. Stay in the game, get stronger as the game goes on, subs make an impact, and win the game,” McClaren added.

With a 28-man squad at his disposal, McClaren has been carefully managing minutes across both matches and is expected to make further changes for Sunday’s encounter.

“We’re trying to include everybody and give people minutes. It's difficult. We’ve got 28 players. We did that on Thursday. We changed nine, ten players at irregular intervals, and I think it worked. The team might not be the same, but everybody must be ready to impact, whether they start or whether they come on,” he noted.

That said, the Englishman, though impressed by the attitude and spirit of his squad in training, pointed out that there’s still room for improvement on the pitch.

“I’ve seen that in the two days of training. This is only our third day. We’ve given them a lot of information, and we’re hoping they take it on board and learn. I've said to them that we won the game; we did okay, but we can do better,” McClaren ended.