Led by Romelda Aiken's 72 goals from 79 attempts, Jamaica thrashed Northern Ireland 79-39 in the quarter-finals of the World Youth Netball Championships in the Cook Islands on Monday.

Crystal Gordon, with four goals from eight tries, and captain Christina Solmon, two goals from two attempts, were Jamaica's other scorers.

Despite the easy victory, Jamaica's head coach, C. Lloyd Walker, said he was not pleased.

An ugly win

"I think that it was an ugly win because we were not technically correct in a number of areas.

"I know that we won by a wide margin, but we did not play the type of netball that we can play," he added.

Walker noted there was need to improve on their passing and off-the-ball movement.

"I think that we need to tighten up in the accuracy of our passing and we need to be more clinical in our finishing going into the other games," said Walker.

The young Sunshine Girls were scheduled to play defending champions New Zealand in the semi-finals last night.

Walker optimistic

When he spoke to The Gleaner earlier yesterday, Walker was quite optimistic.

"I am very confident because I have been talking to the girls individually and they are up for the challenge," Walker said.

"I know that they have been conservative in their delivery because I don't think that they have the endurance to play a full game.

"We are going to try and play a fast opening quarter against them and see how they will respond to it and then we will take it from there."