Barbados 2 Montserrat 3: Lee Bowyer starts his international coaching career with a win.

On Friday night, former England international Lee Bowyer kicked off his international coaching career with a stunning and hugely important win away to Barbados. The Montserrat FA’s policy of not announcing changes in the coaching set-up meant that Bowyer was uncovered as the new man in charge only after pictures of a training session were posted on Facebook. The UK media picked up on the story after Montserrat fans started posting on social media that Bowyer appeared to be the new coach. It’s likely that no one will ever know what happened to his predecessor, Matt Lockwood, who left the job with no goals, one point, and very few shots at goal, albeit against tough opposition.

Barbados was always going to offer a less challenging baptism than Haiti did for Lockwood, and with relegation reintroduced this season, Montserrat needed to take points from a team that would likely be their relegation rivals this time around. Until a year ago, Bowyer was the manager of Birmingham City in the English Championship, where he was managing Lyle Taylor for the second time in his career, so in the few hours we had to digest the news of his appointment, we sensed things would be different.

There were a few surprises in the squad, which was also announced only a few hours before kick-off, and there were some experienced players missing. Most notably the Comley brothers. Their loss would inevitably cause a problem in the centre of midfield for the new manager. But Bowyer went with a radical change to the usual lineup. At the back, we had two new centre-halves, both on the books of League clubs in England. These were Nico Gordon, who also played for Bowyer at Birmingham City and Jeriel Dorsett of Reading. The two youngsters, both aged 21, lined up in front of teenage goalkeeper Kymani Nelson, who again got the nod over the experienced Corrin Brooks-Meade.

The two new centre-halves represented a decent piece of recruitment and allowed Craig Braham-Barrett to give up his usual makeshift centre-half duties and slot into the left back role, where he excelled. Playing striker Massiah McDonald at right back, however, didn’t work out so well, and he was targeted by Barbados ruthlessly and to great effect until he was relieved of his duties in the second half. Braham-Barrett moved over to successfully close down that Barbados route to goal. Joey Taylor, who usually plays as a defender, took the central midfield spot between Lewis Duberry and Alex Dyer, who was making his record-equalling 24th appearance for the team.

The other formation change, perhaps signalling the new attacking intent, was to play winger Brandon Barzey in an advanced attacking midfield role behind Lyle Taylor and Jamie Allen. And it seemed to work at first, with Montserat’s first goal coming after just six minutes. Barbados failed to block a flicked-through ball from Dyer, leaving Allen to chip the ball to Lyle Taylor at the far post. Unfortunately, by half time, Montserrat was 2-1 down, with Barbados exploiting Montserrat’s weakness at the right of their defence for both goals. Also, no one wants to see a centre half appealing for offside when Thierry Gale is lining up to shoot from 12 yards out. Yes, it probably was offside, but the priority should have been to block the shot.

Both sides had further chances, although the keepers weren’t too stretched, and in the final 20 minutes, and in the Willie Donachie style of old, two set pieces turned the game for Montserrat. Joey Tayor won two free kicks 30 yards out and to the left of the Barbados penalty area. The first kick, taken by Joey himself, found substitute Adrian Clifton at the far post, whose low cross was deflected in for an own goal. Seven minutes into added time, the second freekick, a little closer this time, presented Lyle Taylor with a direct shot at goal.

The Barbados keeper, Liam Brathwaite, seemed to give Taylor a big target to aim for, and Taylor took the chance to make goalscoring look easy. The ball nestled in the top corner of the net with Brathwaite barely moving. By this time, Bowyer seemed to have settled for a draw, with Allen and Lyle Taylor dropping deep to support a visibly tiring midfield, but the Taylor brothers had other ideas. Whoever had lost this game was going to face an uphill task to stay in League B, but this season can now be seen as an adventure. There is no Gold Cup qualification this season, so it is first or nothing. Next month’s back-to-back games against Nicaragua could be thrilling.