Kane Crichlow notched his 12th goal for Bermuda as the Gombey Warriors fell to defeat against Curaçao in their second Concacaf World Cup Qualifier of the September international break.

The Sutton winger completed 90 minutes at Stadion Ergilio Hato and got the deftest of touches after half-an-hour to turn home a Nejai Tucker cross, inspiring a first half comeback that saw Michael Findlay’s men come from 2-0 down to go into the break level, with former West Ham United striker Djair Parfitt-Williams scoring on the stroke of half time to cancel out two opening goals from Sheffield United’s Tahith Chong.

Despite this, Bermuda fell short 15 minutes from time as Tyrese Noslin struck for Curaçao, and condemned Crichlow’s side to defeat against a team consisting of a handful of familiar players within English football, including Chong, Leandro Bacuna, Juninho Bacuna, Ar’jany Martha and Jürgen Locadia.

As a result, the Gombey Warriors sit bottom of Group B after the first batch of Round Three Qualifiers, but are still a long way off elimination with further Qualifiers against Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica to be played in October.

Crichlow had previously played 90 minutes as Bermuda fell to a 4-0 defeat against the Reggae Boyz four days earlier, with Damion Lowe, Renaldo Cephas, Kasey Palmer and Shamar Nicholson scoring the decisive goals at the Dame Flora Duffy National Sports Centre.

Over in Asia, Dillon De Silva’s Sri Lanka were defeated in the South Asian Super Cup, with Maldives coming out of two international friendlies victorious against the Golden Army.

The Sutton winger started both matches, being deployed out wide as Abdullah Al Mutairi’s side lost 3-0 in the first game, being condemned to defeat thanks to goals from Hassan Naiz, Hassan Ibrahim and Ali Fasir.

This preceded a 1-1 draw in the second game, with Sri Lanka rescuing a result at the death when Oliver Kelaart scored in the 92nd minute to cancel out Naiz’s second goal in as many games, but wasn’t enough to prevent defeat overall in the cup.

The warm-up games sees the Golden Army continue to prepare for two AFC Asia Cup Play-Off games against Turkmenistan in October, looking to make it to the finals of the competition for the first time in 2027.

Back to Europe, Sutton Academy defender Jay Coombes made two substitute appearances for Gibraltar Under-21’s as Los Llanis lost their first two Euro Under-21 Qualifiers against Bulgaria and Czech Republic.

A Georgi Lazarov brace saw Lavovete race into a 2-0 lead at Stadion Georgi Benkovski, with Nikola Iliev completing a 3-0 win, before Matyas Vojta and Lukas Masek scored two goals for Czech Republic to to complete the turnaround after a first half Kyle Clinton penalty, and condemn Gibraltar to a 2-1 defeat.

Team 54 currently sit 5th in Group B, and will be looking to close the gap on the top two with games against Scotland and Portugal next month.