Defeats on day two lead to European relegation for Scotland

Following defeats to France and Ukraine on day two of the EuroHockey Indoor Championship II, it was confirmed that Scotland Senior Men will be relegated to the Championship III division in two years time.

The narrow 5-4 loss to the French, plus England’s win over Croatia, in the final pool A matches this morning meant that both Scotland and Croatia progressed to the relegation pool.

Significantly, the Scots carried zero points to the next stage as a result of yesterday’s loss to the Balkan state, meaning that the national side faced a must-win match against Ukraine this afternoon.

A 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Eastern Europeans made it mathematically impossible for Derek Forsyth’s side to escape the drop to the third tier, effectively rendering tomorrow’s final match against hosts Portugal meaningless from a Scottish perspective.

Scotland captain Gavin Byers had given his side the perfect start against France, scoring a fantastic effort from a tight angle.

However, Scotland were soon chasing the game when penalty corner goals from Viktor Lockwood and Francois-Javier Laffineur put the French side 2-1 up inside the first ten minutes.

Mickael Kempf increased his team’s lead to 3-1 two minutes from half-time, only for Inverleith’s Patrick Christie to keep the Scots within touching distance with a field goal on the stroke of the hooter.

Laffineur’s penalty corner six minutes after the interval restored France’s two-goal cushion, but Dan Coultas’ replied from the corner set-piece mid-way through the half to keep Scotland in the hunt.

Unfortunately, a Theophile Ponthieu goal to give France a 5-3 advantage proved the winner, Coultas’ second strike of the contest coming too late in a 5-4 loss.

With continuing survival in the division resting on a must win encounter for Scotland against Ukraine, it was no surprise that both sides started the match cautiously.

Dmytro Luppa finally broke the stalemate in the eighth minute, rifling a penalty corner effort into the net to give his side the lead.

Nevertheless, a cooly taken field goal from Callum Duke restored parity to the contest going into the half-time break.

The Scots were right in the match up until the last ten minutes, when Oleksander Diachenko finally beat Scotland goalkeeper Sean Hadfield to make it 2-1 in the 31st minute, and an Artem Ozerskyi hat-trick inside seven minutes killed off any lingering hopes of a Scottish comeback.

Tomorrow’s final match against Portugal will be broadcast live at 10.00

Please visit the EuroHockey Indoor Nations Championship II website for comprehensive information

 

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