Scotland get their UEFA European Qualification campaign off to a flyer in Slovenia last night winning 3-0 at the Ajdovšcina Stadion thanks to a hat trick from Kim Little. The Seattle Reign’s midfielder opened her account with a fine chipped goal just before the half-hour mark after some nice build-up play through the middle by Rachel Corsie.
Minutes into the second-half Scotland doubled their lead. when Jane Ross’ ball was controlled by Little who rounded the keeper and blasted in for her second of the game.
On 59 minutes Little claimed her hat-trick and Scotland’s third goal of the game. Crichton sent a fine pass through the Slovenian defence that found Little who, again, rounded the keeper and made no mistake with the finish. 3-0 to Scotland.
Little’s hat trick means she has now scored 44 goals in 109 games for the National Team – the most of any player in the current squad.
Next up for Scotland is a home tie with Belarus on October 23rd followed by a trip to FYR Macedonia four days later.
After the game Kim said: “Its nice to score three goals but more importantly we’ve not played together for a while so for us it was all about getting the three points. There are lots of things we could have done better but we all know that. We came here and we did what we had to do.
“You always want to get off to a good start. There are lots of things we’ve got to do better when we face teams that are a bit higher ranked. But it’s a good platform to build from and I’m sure there’ll be more wins to come.”
“It was quite tight around the area and I thought we played some nice combination play beforehand. Rach scooped it over to me and the keeper came out so that kinda made the decision for me to go over her.”
Scotland | Fay (GK, C), Dieke, Love, Lauder, Little, Crichton, Evans, J.Ross (L.Ross 81) Corsie, Beattie, Brown. Subs not used: Lynn (GK), Smith, Weir, Murray, Arnot, Clelland
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
