Reggae Boy striker Darren Mattocks has admitted that a lean stretch in front of goal has been difficult to stomach, as he struggles to find his feet in his second year for the Vancouver Whitecaps in the USA's Major League Soccer.

The forward found the back of the net in last Saturday's Cascadia Cup derby match against the Seattle Sounders, but the strike made it only his third goal in 11 regular season games. Following an impressive debut season, in which he led the team in scoring with nine goals, the Jamaican has found things tough so far after his struggles in front of goal have seen him dropped down the pecking order.

"It's a test of faith, I would say," Mattocks told Canadian publication Metro (http://metronews.ca/), after a 2-0 win over Seattle. The goal was the player's first since May 11, and came in the 79th minute.

Mattocks, after being left out of the national team's squad for the early rounds of Jamaica's World Cup qualifiers, has also failed to impress for the team, currently at the bottom of the six-team CONCACAF qualification round, since being included in the squad. The player entered the season with lofty ambitions of a 20-goal target, but has found himself more at the centre of criticism than anything else. Despite his struggles to find the target so far this season, however, the player remains confident that he will rediscover his goalscoring touch.

"I know what I'm capable of doing. That's the biggest thing. It's going to take something very dramatic for me to get my confidence (down) because I'm a really confident person. No one's ever going to take that from me," Mattocks said.