Canadian-born Cavalry FC striker Malcolm Shaw and Duane Muckette of local champions AC Port-of-Spain scored two goals each as the T&T Soca Warriors got their 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifying campaign back on track with an emphatic 7-1 blowout of Bahamas at the St Kitts and Nevis Football Association Technical Centre, Basseterre, yesterday.
The win fell just shy of T&T's biggest-ever World Cup qualifying margin of a win, an 8-0 trouncing of Dominican Republic in 1996.
Coming off a disappointing 2-2 home draw with Grenada in their Group B opener of the second round of Concacaf Qualifiers at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain on Wednesday night, the Angus Eve-coached Soca Warriors were desperate to come away with three points.
And as early as the sixth minute T&T stamped their authority on the match, with Shaw, one of seven changes to the starting team from the match against the Spice Boys, collecting a short pass from Muckette, before coolly slotting a right-footed effort past goalkeeper Amard Adderley low to his right for a 1-0 lead.
Five minutes later, Alvin Jones made it 2-0 for the Soca Warriors beating Adderley to his left from the penalty spot after Mexican referee Marco Ortiz had no choice but to whistle for a foul by defender Alexiou Cartwright on T&T's Triston Hodge who had made a surging run into the left side of the 18-yard box.
Against the run of play, Bahamas almost found a way back into the contest when midfielder Michael Massey robbed T&T's Andre Rampersad of the ball just outside the 18-yard box and unleashed a dipping right-footed long-range effort, however, goalkeeper Denzil Smith was alert to the danger and pushed the effort overbar for a corner.
Pacific FC striker Reon Moore should have made it 3-0 for T&T in the 26th minute but after weaving his way through the Bahamas defence, he failed to hit the target off his weaker left foot while falling backwards.
Two minutes before the half-time interval Moore fed an unmarked Muckette a pass just outside the 18-yard box, and with time and space, he placed a right-footed finish into the bottom right corner for a 3-0 advantage.
The Soca Warriors were not done with their first-half scoring and on the stroke of half-time, T&T scored their finest goal of the evening so far when Jones slotted in a pass to Moore backheeled a pass into the path of Shaw who slipped the ball to his left to an unmarked Muckette to blast home past a hapless Adderley for a commanding 4-0 cushion.
On the resumption, T&T with debutant Steffen Yeates seeing lots of the ball in midfield picked up from where they let off in the first half with an unmarked Shaw missing a chance to make it 5-0 when he headed over bar from a left-sided centre.
Shaw then had a right-footed blast parried down by Adderley in the 54th minute as the Soca Warriors tried to add to their tally against Bahamas.
However, two minutes later it was 5-0 when Hodge released a through pass for an overlapping Yeates inside the left-hand side of the 18-yard box and his cut back from the byline was stabbed home from close range by Moore on the first post.
At the other end of the field, Smith who was mainly a spectator on the night was called into action with a low save to his left to keep out an attempt from Jordin Wilson in the 58th minute.
The speedy Shaw finally completed his double in the 66th minute, running onto a smartly weighted pass from Moore, holding off his defender and firing past Adderley on his left foot into the bottom right corner of the goal. He was replaced soon after by veteran Kevon "Showtime" Woodley, 37, the leading scorer in the T&T Premier Football League Tier I Division with 16 goals in 13 matches.
Woodley who scored in his first two T&T senior team appearances last month in back-to-back matches against Guyana, also almost added his name to the scoresheet in the 72nd, but his right-footer from the edge of the 18-yard box sailed over bar.
Another substitute, Dantaye Gilbert, 19, who plies his trade with Jong PSV in Holland almost capped off his senior team debut with a goal but his right-footed effort on a fast break just missed sneaking in at the far post.
Seven minutes from the final whistle, Jamaican-based winger Nathaniel James, extended the lead to 7-0, eluding defender Jean Ryka and firing home past Adderley on the near post.
Despite being outplayed for the entire contest Bahamas managed to get a consolation item when Peter Wood Julmis was on spot to tap home a rebound after Smith did well to block a close-range drive from Nahum Johnson.
With the win, which equalled T&T's second biggest-ever World Cup qualifying margin of victory (6-0 over Panama in 2000), the Soca Warriors moved to the top of the five-team Group B standings with four points from two matches, one more than Costa Rica who slammed St Kitts & Nevis 4-0 on Thursday at home.
Costa Rica will have a chance to reclaim the top spot when they play away to travel to face Grenada tomorrow in St George’s while St Kitts & Nevis welcomes Bahamas on Tuesday at Warner Park Football Stadium in Basseterre from 4 pm to close out the international window.
Result:
T&T 7 (Malcolm Shaw 6th, 66th, Duane Muckette 43rd, 45th, Alvin Jones 14th pen, Reon Moore 56th, Nathaniel James 84th) vs Bahamas 1 (Peter Wood Julmis 87th).
T&T: 22. Denzil Smith (GK), 2. Aubrey David (capt), 3. Triston Hodge, 5. Josiah Trimmingham, 6. Duane Muckette (11. Michel Poon-Angeron 67th), 12. Steffen Yeates (15. Dantaye Gilbert 77th), 13. Reon Moore (9. Nathaniel James 67th), 16. Alvin Jones, 17. Justin Garcia, 18. Andre Rampersad (10. Real Gill 77th), 19. Malcolm Shaw (23. Kevon Woodley 67th).
Subs not used: 14. Shannon Gomez, 8. Noah Powder, 4. Daniel Phillips, 20. Ajani Fortune, 7. Ryan Telfer, 1. Christopher Biggette (GKr), 21. Aaron Enill (GK),
Bahamas: 23. Amard Adderley (GK), 2. Alexiou Cartwright (,15. Jordan Cheetham 78th), 4. Jonathan Miller, 5. Michael Massey (19. Reuben Edgecombe 78th), 6. Jean Ryka, 7. Quinton Carey (Brandon Adderley 64th), 8. Evelt Julmis, 9. Peter Wood Julmis, 10. Lesley St Fleur (capt), 12. Jordin Wilson (,13. Nahum Johnson 64th), 16. William Gardiner (3. Duane Beneby 82nd)
Subs: 18. Deron Ferguson, 17. Kai Perez, 20. Daylan Russell
