In, what was widely tipped to be the tournament decider, Scotland faced Wales on Day 2 of the Men’s EuroHockey Qualifier D in Uddingston.
In a very competitive opening quarter, both sides produced some fine attacking hockey, but the respective defences stood firm to prevent much in the way of shots on target.
The first decent chance of the match fell to the home side. A well-worked, three-pass move between Lee Morton, Callum Duke and Alan Forsyth gave Struan Walker a half chance, but his deflected effort went just wide of the target.
Early in the second quarter Wales had a chance to open the scoring with a penalty corner opportunity but it was deflected over the bar by a Scottish stick.
Then Scotland had another opportunity to take the lead when Jamie Golden came close as he slid in to hook a shot goalward, but it looped just over the bar.
Wales then broke Scottish hearts three minutes before the break, taking the lead when Gareth Furlong fired home a penalty corner to make it 1-0.
Right on the half time hooter Golden was denied again, but this time by a superb save to prevent his PC drag flick finding the top corner.
Early in the second half, Alan Forsyth came close with a deflected effort but the Welsh block resulted in a penalty corner. Golden once again saw his attempt the Welsh keeper pulling out another good save to deny the equaliser.
It was then Walker’s turn to make the opposition keeper pull, yet, another miracle save out of the bag when he unleashed a powerful effort towards goal as Scotland went on the hunt for an equaliser.
Scotland threw everything at Wales in the final quarter with a string of late penalty corners but failed to convert, leaving Wales to claim the victory and top the table on six points with one game left to play.
Failing a Welsh meltdown on Saturday when they play Gibraltar, they are now the favourites to go forward to the Men’s EuroHockey Championships 2023, at the Warsteiner Hockey Park in Monchengladbach.
Scotland, for their part, must do something about their failure to convert from penalty corners, as none of the five awarded found the back of the net. Not a great strike rate…
