Club before country says Stags’ Bermudian winger Reggie Lambe

Mansfield Town’s Bermudian winger Reggie Lambe is hopeful he may add another cap to his international collection soon, but he stressed today it would always be club before country for him.
Reggie Lambe -Pic by: Richard ParkesReggie Lambe -Pic by: Richard Parkes
Reggie Lambe -Pic by: Richard Parkes

Bermuda are about to start playing their World Cup qualifying games and contact has been made with the Stags about the possibility of 23-year-old Lambe flying back home to take part.

“They are eager to get me to play in one of the matches,” he said. “I have given them the contact for the club as I don’t want to be involved. If they release me or don’t, I am happy either way.

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“I believe the matches are World Cup qualifiers. It would be good if I can play for my country as I love to play for my country.

“It is good to be around players I played with when I was growing up, local boys. It would also be good to be reunited with Nahki Wells at Huddersfield who I’ve not played with for a while.

“But I have a job to do here and my club comes first.”

Lambe has already won 15 senior caps, scoring four times, before his arrival at Mansfield from Toronto.

The exciting winger is hoping the weather allows Saturday’s home clash with League Two leaders Wycombe to go ahead, especially as his parents have just flow over from Bermuda to visit, finding him almost snowed in.

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“They arrived here last night and were immediately running round looking for a shovel to clear my driveway with so I could get to training this morning,” he smiled.

“My mum has been over before but it’s my dad’s first time and he is enjoying it.

“I was in Canada and it’s much colder there. This weather doesn’t really affect me that much.”

At Mansfield Lambe was on a short-term contract that was set to expire this month and under previous boss Paul Cox he barely had a kick.

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But new manager Adam Murray has been much happier to give the youngster licence to show off his talents and Lambe was delighted to sign a new deal until the summer.

“The manager just wants us to go out there and play with freedom and make sure we just do our jobs,” he said.

“It feels more free out there on the park. It’s amazing. It’s a new freedom.

“I wanted to put pen to paper and make it official so I could concentrate on the rest of the season and keeping us in this league.

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“The lads in the changing rooms have been brilliant as have the fans, the stadium and the manager.”

Lambe said there was no fear over Saturday’s high-flying opposition.

“I am just expecting a tough battle,” he said. “As a team we need to eliminate some mistakes as they are where most of the opposition’s chances come from.

“If we can put some of our own chances away then I don’t feel like anyone should be coming to our home and beating us.”

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The Bahamas will play Bermuda in March in one of seven pairings as qualifying starts for the 2018 tournament in Russia.

The other first-round pairings are Barbados v US Virgin Islands; Belize v Cayman Islands; British Virgin Island v Dominica; Curacao v Montserrat; Turks and Caicos Islands v St Kitts and Nevis; and Nicaragua v Anguilla.

Seeking its first World Cup berth since 1986, Canada opens at home against the British Virgin Islands or Dominica in the second round from 6th-16th June, when Cuba faces Curacao or Montserrat, Guatemala plays Bahamas or Bermuda, Puerto Rico meets Grenada and El Salvador plays the Turks and Caicos-Islands-St. Kitts and Nevis winner.

Jamaica and Haiti have byes until the third round from 21st August-8th September, and the United States joins for the start of the semi-finals in November along with Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago.