Guyana's national football team crashed to a 5-0 defeat against Grenada in the first leg of their CONCACAF World Cup qualifier at Grenada's National Stadium last evening.

Goals from midfielder Nigel Bishop in the 34th minute and Kennedy Phillips in the 39th paced Grenada to a 2-0 lead at half-time.

Guyana suffered a further setback upon resumption when first choice goalkeeper Marlon Hendericks received a red card for a foul committed on Anthony Charles in the 61st minute and was sent off.

This left the Guyana team with only 10 men and forced Technical Director Neider Dos Santos to pull out striker Randolph Jerome from the attack and replace him with substitute goalkeeper Andrew Durant.

Grenada made further inroads when Anthony Agustin pounced on the ball after a scrimmage in front of the goal to score Grenada's third goal in the 72nd minute.

Grenada's skipper Antony Modeste, who plays in Jamaica, then scored perhaps the gaol of the match heading home the ball off a corner in the 80th minute and substitute Dennis Renny rounded out the performance by running through the defence virtually unchallenged to score the final goal in injury time.

Dos Santos said after the game that "things did not go in our favour."

The Technical Director added that a bad first half- performance was not helped by the expulsion of Hendericks which he declared was the final nail in the coffin of the visitor's efforts.

However, Dos Santos has not given up hope and is still optimistic that his team can progress to the next round where a clash against the USA looms for the winner of the home and away tie.

Grenada's coach Ali Bellotte said that basically his team took out Guyana's two strikers Jerome and Gregory `Jackie Chan' Richardson from the game.

"Having seen Guyana play, we knew what we had to do," Bellotte told Stabroek Sports after the game.

Bellotte was loud in praise of his overseas-based players.

Grenada, beaten by Barbados in warm-up games before yesterday's match included seven professional players, two of whom play in the English leagues and two from a club in Hungary in their line-up for yesterday's crucial first round tie.

And things will not get better for Guyana for the return leg in Guyana on March 14 as Bellotte said they will draw on the services of a further five overseas-based players for the return leg.

The Guyana team will leave for home today but will stop over in Trinidad where they will play against the Trinidad national side on Tuesday.