Gutsy performance not enough for Scotland Men against South Africa

 

Scotland Senior Men were unlucky to suffer a 2-0 defeat at the hands of South Africa in their opening game of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Hockey competition today.
A controversial second half penalty stroke from Andrew Cronje and a brilliant field goal four minutes from time by Ignatuis Malgraff ensured the South Africans’ win.
Summarising his team’s performance, Scotland Head Coach Derek Forsyth said, “I thought our first half performance was very good, I felt our second half performance didn’t quite match the same quality. We didn’t have enough good possession in the second half to hurt South Africa. It’s a set-back, nothing more.
“If one of these chances go in and we get the upper hand, we get the momentum. We had a big chance right at the start of the second half. If that goes in, you have the crowd, you have the momentum, but unfortunately it just went wide of the post.”
Scotland Captain Chris Grassick added, “We’ve worked so hard, and we just needed that goal to get us into the game. I think when we look back at the stats in the game, the number of chances will be very even and we just need to turn our chances into goals, be smarter on the ball as well. We’ve proved that we can match these teams.”
The home side had a great opportunity as early as the third minute, striker Alan Forsyth finding himself in space on the right of the circle, only for South African goalkeeper Erasmus Pieterse to smother the shot on goal.
Shortly after, Kenny Bain just failed to latch onto a cross from Iain Scholefield right in front of goal.
Scotland appeared to have opening the scoring in the 13th minute after Nicky Parkes’ second attempt on goal with a reverse stick found the back of the goal. However, a South Africa appeal saw the goal decision reversed for an illegal use of the foot.
The first penalty corner attempt of the contest in the 22nd minute from South Africa captain Andrew Smith but Scotland goalkeeper Jamie Cachia was alive to parry the effort to safety.
Following a good inter-change between Bain and Gordon McIntyre, Ian Moodie was next to try and trouble the scorers but the Edinburgh University midfielder was unable to guide his attempt on target from a narrow angle.
With the sides going in level at half-time, the Scots had a golden opportunity to register on the scoresheet sixty seconds after the re-start, but Bain’s slide and shot went wide of the goal.
There was much debate in the 40th minute when a Ross Stott clearance off the goal-line from a Cronje penalty corner was adjudged by the umpires to have been illegal. Cronje subsequently made no mistake from the spot, beating Cachia low to his left to give his side a 1-0 lead.
Two further penalty corner chances for South Africa came and went before Bain again went close for the national side with two chances in quick succession.
Scotland had a penalty corner chance to grab a deserved equaliser ten minutes from time, but Peiterse was alive to Bain’s effort.
With only minutes to play, Ignatius Malgraff engineered a shooting opportunity for himself with some excellent skills along the base-line, consequently dispatching the ball past Cachia to make it 2-0 and seal the win for South Africa.
The Scots sit at the foot of Pool A following India’s 3-1 win over Wales earlier today and will face the Indians tomorrow at 4pm.
“It’s a slight different style obviously, we’ll have to take a look at them on video”, said Forsyth as he contemplated tomorrow’s opponents. “They’ve played Wales today, who kept a respectable scoreline. We’ll look to improve on our performance today but we have to be more consistent.”

Scotland Senior Men were unlucky to suffer a 2-0 defeat at the hands of South Africa in their opening game of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Hockey competition today.

A controversial second half penalty stroke from Andrew Cronje and a brilliant field goal four minutes from time by Ignatuis Malgraff ensured the South Africans’ win.

Scotland v SA 2014

(Scotland striker Kenny Bain against South Africa. Photo Credit: Robert Moorley)

Summarising his team’s performance, Scotland Head Coach Derek Forsyth said, “I thought our first half performance was very good, I felt our second half performance didn’t quite match the same quality. We didn’t have enough good possession in the second half to hurt South Africa. It’s a set-back, nothing more.

“If one of these chances go in and we get the upper hand, we get the momentum. We had a big chance right at the start of the second half. If that goes in, you have the crowd, you have the momentum, but unfortunately it just went wide of the post.”

Scotland Captain Chris Grassick added, “We’ve worked so hard, and we just needed that goal to get us into the game. I think when we look back at the stats in the game, the number of chances will be very even and we just need to turn our chances into goals, be smarter on the ball as well. We’ve proved that we can match these teams.”

The home side had a great opportunity as early as the third minute, striker Alan Forsyth finding himself in space on the right of the circle, only for South African goalkeeper Erasmus Pieterse to smother the shot on goal.

Shortly after, Kenny Bain just failed to latch onto a cross from Iain Scholefield right in front of goal.

Scotland appeared to have opening the scoring in the 13th minute after Nicky Parkes’ second attempt on goal with a reverse stick found the back of the goal. However, a South Africa appeal saw the goal decision reversed for an illegal use of the foot.

The first penalty corner attempt of the contest in the 22nd minute from South Africa captain Andrew Smith but Scotland goalkeeper Jamie Cachia was alive to parry the effort to safety.

Following a good inter-change between Bain and Gordon McIntyre, Ian Moodie was next to try and trouble the scorers but the Edinburgh University midfielder was unable to guide his attempt on target from a narrow angle.

With the sides going in level at half-time, the Scots had a golden opportunity to register on the scoresheet sixty seconds after the re-start, but Bain’s slide and shot went wide of the goal.

There was much debate in the 40th minute when a Ross Stott clearance off the goal-line from a Cronje penalty corner was adjudged by the umpires to have been illegal. Cronje subsequently made no mistake from the spot, beating Cachia low to his left to give his side a 1-0 lead.

Two further penalty corner chances for South Africa came and went before Bain again went close for the national side with two chances in quick succession.

Kenny Bain v SA 2014

(Kenny Bain looking to get Scotland back on level terms. Photo Credit: Robert Moorley)

Scotland had a penalty corner chance to grab a deserved equaliser ten minutes from time, but Peiterse was alive to Bain’s effort.

With only minutes to play, Ignatius Malgraff engineered a shooting opportunity for himself with some excellent skills along the base-line, consequently dispatching the ball past Cachia to make it 2-0 and seal the win for South Africa.

The Scots sit at the foot of Pool A following India’s 3-1 win over Wales earlier today and will face the Indians tomorrow at 4pm.

“It’s a slight different style obviously, we’ll have to take a look at them on video”, said Forsyth as he contemplated tomorrow’s opponents. “They’ve played Wales today, who kept a respectable scoreline. We’ll look to improve on our performance today but we have to be more consistent.”

Team Scotland: Jamie Cachia, Gareth Hall, David Forsyth, Nick Parkes, Michael Bremner, Dan Coultas, Alan Forysth, Chris Grassick (c), Ian Moodie, Gordon McIntyre, Ross Stott, Chris Nelson, Kenny Bain, William Marshall, Iain Scholefield, Niall Stott.

Please visit Glasgow 2014 Hockey Competition for all fixtures, results and pool standings.

 

Recent posts:

Back to all news
Back to top