Scotland men’s head coach Jonny Caren saw his men cruise to a 10-2 victory over Croatia in their EuroHockey qualifier in Vienna and declared: “There is always room for improvement.”
The Scots had to come from behind to notch the confidence-boosting win as Croatia took an early lead when Josip Krezla struck from a penalty corner to go 1-0 up.
Five minutes later and Scotland were on level terms through Tommy Austin and, at the end of the first quarter, A J Lochrin fired Scotland ahead.
Struan Walker made it 3-1 for Scotland as half time neared but Croatia held Scotland until midway through the third quarter before Paris Olympian Lee Morton then fired home for 4-1.
Cammy Golden netted the fifth from a penalty corner before Croatia pulled one back from Andrej Zidanic but Golden made it 6-2 at the start of the final quarter.
Four goals then arrived in the final ten minutes from from Andrew McConnell, two from Jamie Golden and another from Walker and coach Caren (pictured) said: “The game started as expected.
“It’s been a long time getting to this point, with over 12 months of preparation time, so there was some nervous energy in the first ten minutes that we needed to get out of our system.
“A few small adjustments to our plan at quarter time allowed us to create better passing options, which started to help us grow in confidence.”
He added: “Overall, I’m very happy with how we went about our business. We pressed well and the energy we brought to our off ball movement was good.
“There is always room for improvement, for which we’ll need, when we come to play a tough opponent in Ukraine. The team has earned its rest day tomorrow and we’ll focus on recovery, do our homework on what we need to improve and go again on Saturday.”
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