Scotland Stumped by Belgium

Scotland’s senior women were defeated a second time by Belgium yesterday, in match two of a training series at the Royal Pingium Hockey Club in Nivelles.

Scotland Coach Keith Joss said “After a poor first half we played better after the interval and created enough chances to win. Belgium is a good side and has certainly improved in the past few months. I think they could cause an upset at the Olympic qualifiers if other teams do not play very well against them.”

Scotland got off to the worst possible start when an uncharacteristic passing error allowed Belgium to intercept close to the 23m line, from where the Belgian player entered the circle and rounded Cath Rae before shooting into an empty goal. This error was compounded in the 19^th minute when a neatly worked free hit saw a deflection beat the defence to give Belgium a deserved 2-0 lead.

The second half resulted in a significantly better performance from Scotland, with more penetration into the Belgian half of the field. However, connections to the forwards lacked precision and too often the ball fell to a Belgian stick rather than a Scottish one.

Sensing the opportunity to press forward, Scotland changed tactics to play with an additional forward in the last ten minutes of the match, and created havoc in the Belgian ranks. Scotland felt hard done to with less than five minutes to go when the ball fell to Linda Clement in front of goal and was cleared by the wrong side of the defender’s stick. However, both umpires were unsighted, and the danger was cleared.

With less than two minutes remaining, Scotland got a deserved goal when a midfield interception was followed by a sweeping move and Linda Clement scored. Despite the last minute push, Scotland couldn’t pull ahead of Belgium with a final score of 2-1.

Becky Ward of Dundee Wanderers gained her first Senior International Cap in this game.

SENIOR WOMEN – TEST MATCH RESULT

Saturday 16 February

SQUAD

Caps were awarded for the Test Match, but not the training match on 15 February. Caps shown below include these.

Due to the European Indoor Club Championships next weekend and study / work commitments, several players were not available for this event. Only 7 players from this selection represented Scotland when they won the 2007 EuroHockey Nations Trophy in Lithuania.