Narrow defeat for Scotland’s women in Spain

Challenge: Scotland women 1, Spain 2 (San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante)

Gordon Shepherd praised the performance of his Scotland women’s squad despite losing 2-1 to Spain in Alicante, writes Nigel Duncan.

Becky Merchant (Edinburgh University) levelled early in the second period after the Scots lost a first-half goal. The Scots only failed to earn a draw following a Spanish goal four minutes from time.

Earlier, co-captain Kareena Marshall (Western Wildcats) earned her 100^th cap and Lucy Lanigan (CALA Edinburgh) won her first in the second of four international fixtures between Scotland and Rio-bound Spain this week.

Shepherd’s squad bounced back after losing 3-0 to Spain in their opening game on Monday but Dundee-born but Glasgow-based play-caller said: “This was a brilliant performance. The girls were much improved from Monday and they played really well, picking up the tempo from the start. They took the game to Spain and a draw would have been a fair result.”

Scotland have a light gym session before playing Spain again on Thursday and Friday.

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