Olympian Sarah Robertson slotted from close range after 42 minutes to secure a 1-0 victory for Scotland over a dogged Austria combine to take the Tartan Hearts to within one game of returning to Europe’s top division in women’s hockey.
Chris Duncan’s side face Wales in Sunday’s final at Glasgow’s National Hockey Centre (1.15pm) and the head coach expects another challenging contest with a country ranked nine places below the hosts in the world ratings.
Duncan said: “Austria made the game bitty and, fair play to them, they made their plan work and we are just delighted to get the win which gives us a chance of getting back to A Division where we want to be.
“There were good moments, but there were inconsistencies in the standards we set ourselves.”
Jess Buchanan, Scotland’s goalkeeper, had one save to make in the entire 60 minutes, and that was in the dying minutes, but Scotland piled pressure on Austria, ranked No 32 in the world against Scotland at No 16, from the first whistle.
Duncan added: “We would hope that we have a few more gears to go to (against Wales) and, for the goal, the ball fell to Sarah Robertson and she is pretty calm in those situations.
“Yes, we would have liked to have put away more of our chances, as we had quite a number of them, and we want to excite the crowd a little more (against Wales).”
Scotland had ten penalty corners and only scored on one and Duncan said: “Our execution was not up to scratch and our delivery of passing could have been a little more clinical.
“However, we are looking forward to going toe-to-toe with Wales and I would imagine they will play a similar game to Austria. Our job is to show our diligence and open the game up.”
Wales, ranked No 25 in the world, secured their passage into the final with a 4-0 win over Czechia thanks to goals from captain Elizabeth Bingham, Olivia Hoskins with two and a single from Amy Cradden.
PICTURE: The goal-den moment when Robertson secures the 1-0 win. Picture by Nigel Duncan
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