Lowe buoyed by debut goal

Fresh off his first game and first goal in Jamaican colours, forward Jamal Lowe says that he is already looking forward to future opportunities with the Reggae Boyz to cement his place within the group.

Lowe, 26 years old, who plays for English Football League Championship side Swansea City was among six England-based players that made their international debuts in a 4-1 loss to the United States (US) in their international friendly in Austria on Thursday. Goals from Sergiño Dest, Brenden Aaronson, and a double from Sebastian Lletget gave the US victory while Lowe got the only goal for the Reggae Boyz.

He said that he enjoyed the experience and sees potential within the group with more time to develop team synergy.

"I'm very eager [to return] because there are so many positives, so many good talented players and if we had more time," Lowe said. "Obviously, it's been a very short trip. We only trained twice. So if we had a two-week trip or a couple of games, I think we would definitely start to gel a little bit more."

With Jamaica already down 2-0 after 52 minutes, Lowe managed to cut the deficit to one in the 70th minute as he was played in by Watford's Andre Gray and lifted the ball over US goalkeeper Zack Steffen for his first international goal. Lowe said he was pleased that Jamaica were able to take advantage of the counter-attacking opportunities they had.

"The goal is something that we have worked on, trying to hit teams on the counter-attack and we literally just [did] it to the tee," he said. "I hit Dre (Gray) in behind. He held it up well, waited for support, and then played me back in and I managed to finish it."

Gray was among the debutants that featured in the game which included Reading's Liam Moore, and Brentford's Ethan Pinnock.

The team's preparation for the game was hampered by visas and COVID-19 issues which resulted in only two training sessions. Despite the result, Lowe is pleased about his first call up and first start for Jamaica.

"I was buzzing, to be fair," he said. "I was buzzing just to start to be honest. I was happy to be put in the starting 11 and obviously to score and help the team is amazing.

"Obviously, the result doesn't look as satisfying as we want it to be, but it's a learning curve and this is what the friendlies are about. It's about learning, seeing the players, building a relationship and trying to build something special."

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com