After defeating Wales 2-1 on the Saturday, Scotland eased past their Welsh counterparts on Sunday, taking a dominant victory four goals to one.
Following a presentation to Welshman, Lewis Prosser, for his 50th cap and another to Scotland’s Kenny Bain for his 100th, the ‘hostilities’ began. In the first few minutes of the game, it looked like the Welsh were going to make a game of it and put the Scots defence under a bit of pressure, but having weathered this, the home side went on the offensive.
Breaking upfield, firstly it was Kenny Bain who went in on the ‘keeper, only to have the ball taken away and then four minutes later, a reverse stick cross put the ball in at head height, which Gavin Byers got a stick on to deflect into the net.
Five minutes later the Welsh struck back, converting a penalty corner to bring the sides even and it looked like a fight back was on
However, that seemed to fire up the Scots and they piled on the pressure, having a penalty corner strike deflected over the bar and losing out on a goal area skirmish. The pressure eventually told and a ball slipped past the Welsh keeper by Paul Martin was seen over the line by Byers. Scotland were now 2-1 ahead and went into the break that solitary goal ahead.
The visitors started off the second half very much like the first, putting the Scots defence under a bit of stress, but again, like in the first half, it wasn’t sustained for long and the Scots were back on top.
Goals from Derek Salmond (no relation?) and Ian Moodie in the 44th and 53rd minutes, bracketed two fine saves by Williams in the Welsh goal, cemented the Scots’ dominance of the match and, in spite of a couple of last minute scares in the goal area, which gave Scots’ ‘keeper Gavin Forrester a chance to shine, they went on to see the game out 4-1.
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
