Scots come from behind for the win
Scotland made life hard for themselves in the first half of the second match in the Novembers Test Series against Ireland, but came through for the win with a much improved performance in the second.
The first half of the match was, as in Match 1, largely dominated by the visitors. Scotland broke through a few times but didn’t really pressurise the Irish goal. Players were continually beaten to the ball and Ireland’s reward came in the twelfth minute of play with a fine reverse stick strike into the top of the Scottish net from Megan Frazer.
Scotland were saved on more than a couple of occasions by their goalie, Nicola Cochrane and endured a goal mouth scramble with the ball being cleared off the line by a sprawling Susan McGilveray.
The second half saw a different Scotland team take to the field and Ireland, despite Cochrane having to make a couple of early saves, were seemingly unable to exert the same dominance in play.
The first of Scotland’s two goals came just over 10 minutes into the second half. Scotland’s Captain, Nikki Kidd charged into the ‘D’ with the ball and, evading a diving lunge from Ireland’s new cap, Elena Tice (right) – who nevertheless acquitted herself pretty well in the match in general – took the ball wide and reversed the ball into the centre to where Fiona Bruce was on hand to deflect the ball into the net past the keeper.
A few minutes later she just missed adding the scoreboard when she failed to connect with a cross goal strike from Emma McGregor.
The second goal for Scotland came from a failed attempt by Ireland to clear fully from a penalty corner. The initial shot on goal came in from Kidd, but was stopped. However, the loose ball was picked up by Katie Robertson (top) who went over the Irish keeper and found the back of the net for the second.
Ireland had had a few incursions into the Scots’ ‘D’ but had been fairly easily stopped in their tracks by the defence, saving a penalty corner on the way.
Late on in the match Scotland were awarded a string of four penalty corners and, although the set-up and execution of each one was unique, they couldn’t find the back of the net for a third goal and the match finished 2-1 to Scotland.
After the match a brief word with Scotland coach, Gordon Shepherd, elicited his opinion that while they’ll take it, given the first half performance, Ireland deserved the win and things would need to improve for the third and final match.
Images from the match will appear here over the coming week.
