KINGSTON, Jamaica - Luton Shelton scored in the second half Sunday to help Jamaica beat Canada 1-0 in a soccer friendly.

Shelton, who plays for Norwegian club Valerenga, scored in the 68th minute at National Stadium after the Reggae Boyz dominated the first half.

The striker collected a pass from Colorado Rapids forward Omar Cummings and scored his 28th goal with Jamaica while spoiling Stephen Hart's debut as Canada's full-time coach.

"I am not happy with the result but I think the overall performance was good enough considering I knew we would struggle physically in the second half," Hart said.

Canada entered the match light at the midfield position after both Will Johnson and the returning Dwayne De Rosario were forced to pull out due to injury, and things became more complicated after Antonio Ribeiro hobbled off in the 42nd minute. Adrian Cann replaced Ribeiro.

"I thought we were doing very well in the first half until we suffered a key injury in midfield," Hart said. "We created a number of chances in the second half and on another day we could have scored the first goal of the match."

Canada's lineup mainly featured players whose clubs are currently on a winter break while Jamaica fielded a largely in-season domestic based squad.

"I knew from our training sessions that physically we were going to struggle," commented Hart. "Full credit to our players, they played through it and they kept themselves in the game and as I say on another day we could have come away with the result."

Canada's best opportunity came late in the game when unmarked forward Ali Gerba missed from eight yards.

Neither Canada or Jamaica qualified for this year's World Cup in South Africa.

Canada had five players making their full national team debut. Goalkeeper David Monsalve and midfielder Massih Wassey were named in Canada's starting eleven, while Nana Attakora, Randy Edwini-Bonsu, and Carlos Rivas all entered as second-half substitutes.

"Some of our young players did exceptionally well, Stephen Ademolu and Massih Wassey in particular stood out," Hart said. "I thought David Monsalve read the game quite well, he has excellent feet, and he came up with a save that kept us in the game."