Marshall: tournament win a ‘confidence boost’ for Scotland

Scotland Mens Team

SCOTLAND’S Willie Marshall scored two goals in the triple-header in Gniezno to help take Scotland to a tournament win in the Four Nations tournament, held in Poland.

 

It was a successful tournament for Paisley-born Marshall, a former Kelburne player. First he slotted a crucial goal following a penalty corner to level at 3-3 against Poland, ranked eight places ahead of Scotland in the world – the goal helped spark a 5-4 win for the Scots; then against Italy his penalty corner counter to make it 3-0 ended Italian hopes as Scotland dominated to collect a 4-0 victory. Italy are No 34 in the world.

 

Scotland, ranked No 26, made their entry into the tournament with a 2-2 draw against France, who are nine places above them. The result could have been better as coach Derek Forsyth’s men rebounded from a 1-0 deficit with two goals in nine second-half minutes to lead 2-1 until four minutes from time.

 

30-year-old Surbiton defender Marshall, who collected his 141st cap at the weekend, said: “I was worried about the France game which opened our campaign but we came away disappointed that we lost a goal late-on, and we should have won more comfortably against Poland.

“These are teams we should be beating and we know that there is always room for improvement. However, we did really well over the weekend when we introduced four new caps. Sean Hadfield was really good against Italy (on his debut) and made some solid saves when we needed them. Duncan Riddell played in defence and attack and players now need to be versatile. Patrick Christie looked comfortable on the ball and Ed Greaves scored two goals.”

 

Scotland are building towards the World League Round 1 in Glasgow from September 6 to 11 when Switzerland, Wales, Portugal and Slovakia visit. Marshall said: “All the new players stepped-up which is good for the development of the squad. The tournament win was a confidence boost but it is, however, important to realise that we are still work in progress and we need to continue to move to the next stage.”

 

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