Howard Walker, Staff Reporter

St. Lucia's Alvin Xavier (right) clears the ball ahead of Jamaica's Kevin Lamey in Digicel Caribbean Cup action at the National Stadium on Wednesday night. Jamaica won the match 4-0 as Lamey struck twice. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

JAMAICA PLAYED a game of two contrasting halves on Wednesday night.

The first was full of verve and in the second they turned in a tepid performance on their way to a 4-0 whipping of St. Lucia in their Group D Digicel Caribbean Cup opening match at the National Stadium.

Tonight at 7:00, coach Carl Brown hopes his charges will repeat that first-half performance for 90 minutes against St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

In the other game, Haiti tackle St. Lucia at 5:00 p.m. hoping to keep their 100 per cent win record.

Jamaica and Haiti lead the group with three points after registering identical 4-0 wins over St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines respectively.

"If the team can give us two 45 minutes like we saw in the first half, I'll be pretty happy. If we are going to do well in this tournament we need to do that," said Brown.

Half-time pep talk

The Reggae Boyz's display will be one the fans will want to forget in a hurry. However, Brown was not perturbed, in fact, it might have been his half-time pep talk, or lack of it, that led to the Reggae Boyz's lacklustre second-half display.

In the post-match press conference Brown was asked what he told the players at half-time.

"You know, nothing at all. I didn't talk to them. I asked them not to let the St. Lucia team score and I believe that was very important," he said. "They were doing well in the first half and it is not every time that you get in the changing room that you do a lot of chatting," Brown pointed out.

Despite the occasional boos from the fans, the Reggae Boyz did enough to secure their three points from early in the game.

All three scorers - Wilfred Smith (third), Kevin Lamey (22nd, 36th) and Demar Phillips (31st) - were registering their first international goals for Jamaica.

However, Brown was more concerned about his players' legs than the fans who wanted to see the Joga Bonito - the beautiful game.

"In 48 hours we have another game and the expectations of the spectators are always different from coaches," he said.

"They want to win and win at all cost. We have our players and they know exactly what they have to do. We could have been more positive in the second half of the game but at four love down it is understandable that the the foot is off the gas a bit and a team can fall into complacency," Brown explained.

Jamaica are expected to get the better of a St. Vincent team that wilted after the hour mark against Haiti and should do the same tonight.

Meanwhile, Haiti are also expected to get the better of St. Lucia and secure their place in the next round and set up a group decider against Jamaica on Sunday at the same venue.