'It's time for us to do our home­work', na­tion­al mid­field­er and cap­tain Khaleem Hy­land has said ahead of the team's two World Cup Qual­i­fy­ing match­es against the Ba­hamas and St Kitts and Nevis on June 5 and 8, re­spec­tive­ly.

The de­fen­sive mid­field­er told Guardian Me­dia Sports re­cent­ly that it is be­cause St Kitts and Nevis did their home­work that they are cur­rent­ly at the top of Group F of the qual­i­fiers with six points from their two match­es.

T&T are sec­ond in the group with four points from a win against Guyana 3-0 in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and a 1-1 tie against Puer­to Ri­co in Mayaguez, while the Guyanese re­bound­ed to a more-than-con­vinc­ing 4-0 win over the Ba­hamas af­ter its dis­as­trous per­for­mance against the So­ca War­riors on March 25.

Hy­land said: "We are dis­ap­point­ed but four points are bet­ter than none at all. We went in­to the game with hot blood, we did our job in the first 15 min­utes and then we squeezed pres­sure on Guyana. The sec­ond game didn't go as planned be­cause of a num­ber of sit­u­a­tions, where we can say it's two games in al­most four to five days we played. Long trav­el­ling and long bus ride, but we want to have no ex­cuse.

"It was heavy for me per­son­al­ly, it was a heavy day with the ar­ti­fi­cial turf which I don't like at all. Al­so, a lot of grain and wa­ter were on the pitch which was a bit dis­com­fort­ing for me.

"The re­sult didn't go the way we want­ed. I think we un­der­es­ti­mat­ed Puer­to Ri­co by win­ning our first game so com­fort­ably. Puer­to Ri­co did their home­work, now we have time to do our home­work for the next two games," Hy­land said.

With just the win­ner of the group ad­vanc­ing to the sec­ond round of the qual­i­fiers, T&T will be favoured to beat a strug­gling Ba­hami­an out­fit on June 5, but could be in for a chal­lenge against the Kit­ti­tians.

Ac­cord­ing to Hy­land, how­ev­er, the good thing is that they will have to face St Kitts and Nevis in an ex­pect­ed do-or-die clash that could de­ter­mine the ul­ti­mate win­ner of the group.

"The sit­u­a­tion is that St Kitts and Nevis is do­ing the job on the field. We still have to play them, that's the on­ly good thing, so the ball is in our court and once we win our next two games, we will be on top of the ta­ble," Hy­land said.

The steady T&T mid­field­er called for all ef­forts to be made by the pow­ers that be, to have the game, ex­pect­ed to be the coun­try's home game, to be played at home.