Nine up for Scots in Lousada

WORLD LEAGUE ROUND ONE – LOUSADA (PORTUGAL), SEPTEMBER
26-30

SCOTLAND  9  MOROCCO 0

Scotland`s men made their presence felt in Lousada with
a more than comfortable 9-0 win over Morocco in their opening pool
match of the first round of the FIH World
League.  

It took the Scots 28 minutes to make the initial break-through,
the Moroccans played a nine man defence and the Scots frustration
was exacerbated by hitting the post four times and missing two
penalty corners.   But at the third set piece, Dan
Coultas switched the ball to Niall Stott who promptly lashed the
chance into the net for the opener.   The result was
effectively settled in the next two minutes, a Chris Nelson shot in
the circle was brilliantly deflected home by Gavin Byers, then at
another penalty corner switch the ball was passed on to Kenny Bain
who converted with ease for a three goal half-time lead.

Now that the pressure was off, the Scots proceeded to score at
will.   The fourth was perhaps the goal of the game,
Chris Grassick waltzed round three defenders and coolly lobbed the
ball over the bewildered goalkeeper.  Bain created the fifth
with a dazzling run, he released the ball to Alan Forsyth who
scored with a crisp shot on his 50th cap – the youngest Scottish
player to achieve that accolade.

The Scots scored a further four goals in the closing seven
minutes as the Moroccan heads went down.   A set piece
switch found Ian Moodie who scored his first Scotland goal with a
simple tap in, then a hard cross was deflected home by Stott for
8-0.   Stott was the provider of the ninth when he beat
two defender only to be chopped by the third and Dan Coultas sent
his spot effort into the roof of the net.   With three
second left a long ball out of defence found Bain, he drew the
keeper and left Forsyth with a tap in.

“A nine goal win sounds good, but it could have been so much
more if we had taken all the chances available and had a bit more
composure in the circle.  Once we got going, we had 90% of the
possession, a dozen penalty corners and hit the post six times in
total,” said Eugene Connolly, Scotland`s manager.

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