This Friday Scotland will kick-off the Home Nations International Futsal Tournament in Cardiff against rivals England.
The tournament runs over three days at Cardiff City’s House of Sport with Scotland playing Wales on Saturday night and Northern Ireland at midday on Sunday.
The squad last played in April against Gibraltar in a double header at the end of April. They won the first match 4-3 and the second game 4-2.
The players then returned to club duty in the Scottish Futsal League before having the summer off.
They then resumed in September with a number of new faces pushing for inclusion in the squad for the forthcoming European Championship preliminary rounds in January.
Futsal is a 5-a-side version of football with unlimited substitutions and 20 minutes a half.
The Scotland squad named for the weekend’s tournament has five players making their international debuts.
Scotland Futsal Head Coach, Mark Potter said: “Training has been going well and we will be looking to build on the impressive results against Gibraltar earlier this year.
“England are the clear favourites for the tournament with considerably greater experience in their ranks.
“Wales have a strong squad, who managed a 0-0 draw against Latvia recently.
“Latvia are similarly ranked to England in the UEFA standings and with the addition of Rico Zulkarnian, they will be the biggest threat to England’s success.
“Northern Ireland are early into their development, similar to us so we’ll both be looking to assess progress in the games by how well we cope with increased demands of playing at this level.
“We have been progressing well with fitness improving all the time and hopefully we will be competitive against our more experienced opponents.”
Match Schedule:
Friday 2 December: England vs. Scotland, 4.30pm
Saturday 3 December: Wales vs. Scotland, 7.30pm
Sunday 4 December: Scotland vs. Northern Ireland, 12 noon
Scotland Futsal Squad
Goalkeepers
Gordon McGillvary (FC Santos)
Ben Tough (FC Santos)
Defenders
Scott Chaplain (Adventure Kicks Futsal/ East Kilbride YM)
Ross Chisholm (FC Santos / Hurlford Utd JFC)
Craig McLeish (Queens Park FC)
Scott Mollinson (FC Santos/Jeanfield Swifts)
Midfielders
Kyle Ballingall (PYF Saltires)
Jamie Forsyth (Watcell Futsal / Heriot Watt FC)
Craig Holmes (FC Santos / Rossvale JFC)
Fraser Smith (Oakbank Futsal / Jeanfield Swifts)
Conor Thomson (Wattcell Futsal / Musselburgh Juniors)
James Yates (FC Santos / Forfar Athletic
Forwards
Mark Caldow (FC Santos)
Jack Guthrie (Wattcell Futsal / Edinburgh University)
Ryan Robb (FC Santos / Luncarty JFC)
Dayle Robertson (FC Santos / Dundee North End)
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.
