De­fence Force’s Re­on Moore came off the bench to score the lone goal as the T&T So­ca War­riors se­cured a hard-fought 1-0 win over host Ja­maica in the first of two friend­ly in­ter­na­tion­als in Ja­maica, on Sat­ur­day night.

Play­ing at the Cather­ine Hall Sports Com­plex in Mon­tego Bay, T&T’s got the game-win­ner in the even­ly con­test­ed match in the 67th minute when Moore, who re­placed Jo­moul Fran­cois four min­utes ear­li­er, was fed a pass just out­side the left side of the Reg­gae Boyz 18-yard box, and took two touch­es, be­fore ham­mer­ing home a left-foot­ed blast that beat goal­keep­er Ke­mar Fos­ter, who had ear­li­er made a fine save to keep the match goal­less on his near post, to si­lence the home crowd.

The hosts un­der the guid­ance of head coach Heimir Hall­grims­son and fea­tur­ing Unit­ed King­dom-based Chelsea’s Omari Hutchin­son, Wolves’ Dex­ter Lem­bik­isa, and Tyler Roberts, as well as Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur’s Dante Har­vey along with vet­er­ans Adri­an Mari­ap­pa and the em­bat­tled Rav­el Mor­ri­son all in their line-up, were hop­ing to give their new boss a de­but home win and cre­at­ed a few ner­vous mo­ments for the So­ca War­riors de­fence but in the end, the T&T de­fend­ers held firm and de­fend­ed res­olute­ly to pre­serve the 1-0 score­line.

For the An­gus Eve-coached T&T squad, French-born mid­field­er Kaile Au­vray, 18, made his T&T de­but wear­ing the red, white and black along with An­dre Ray­mond.

Both teams will meet again on Tues­day at In­de­pen­dence Park in Kingston with T&T us­ing the en­coun­ters as part of their prepa­ra­tions for the re­sump­tion of the Con­ca­caf Na­tions League (CNL) fix­tures away to the Ba­hamas on March 24, and three days lat­er at home to Nicaragua at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in Ba­co­let To­ba­go, on March 27.

The So­ca War­riors are sec­ond in Group C of the CON­CA­CAF Na­tions League on nine points while Nicaragua is on top. The Nicaraguans de­feat­ed T&T 2-0 in Man­agua back in June, last year.

Ja­maica will face Mex­i­co in a must-win Con­ca­caf Na­tions League A clash at the Es­ta­dio Azteca in Mex­i­co City on March 26 with a win ce­ment­ing a first-ever spot in the Na­tions League Pool A semi­fi­nals.

Squads

T&T starters: 21. Den­zil Smith (GK) (Adri­an Fon­cette 45th), 3. Jo­evin Jones, 4. Josi­ah Trim­ming­ham, 5. An­dre Ray­mond (,12.Jameel Nep­tune). 8. Michel Poon-Angeron, 11. Jo­moul Fran­cois (13. Re­on Moore 63rd), 14. John-Paul Rochford (20. Jo­mal Williams 63rd), 15. Kaile Au­vray 9. (Nathaniel James 63rd), 16. Alvin Jones, 17. Justin Gar­cia,

Subs: Mar­vin Phillip, Ka­reem Ri­ley, Je­lani Fe­lix, Matthew Woo Ling, Noah Pow­der, Jesse Williams, Justin Sadoo, Kwe­si We­st­on, Kadeem Corbin

Ja­maica starters: 1. Ke­mar Fos­ter (GK), 14. Sue Lae Mc­Calla, 6. Richard King, 20. Dex­ter Lem­bik­isa, 19. Adri­an Mari­ap­pa, 2. Al­wayne Har­vey, 3. Dwayne Atkin­son, 10. Rav­el Mor­ri­son, 18. Omari Hutchin­son, 11. Jour­daine Fletch­er, 9. Trivante Stew­art

Subs: 23. Ash­er Hutchin­son (GK), 13. Akeem Bernard (GK), 16. Os­hane Sta­ple, 5. Ri­car­do Thomas, 24. Jamoi Tapey, 22. Fitzroy Cum­mings, 21. De­la­jo Mc­Coy-Splatt, 7. Lamar Walk­er, 9. De­mario Phillips, 17. Jahshaun An­glin, 12. Du­juan Richards, 4. Tyler Roberts, 25. Collin An­der­son,