Scotland beat Poland in third match of World League 2

Alan Forsyth Sco goal

Scotland defeated Poland 2-1 in their final pool match of men’s World League 2 in Belfast –  the winner coming through a moment of magic by Alan Forsyth. The result means the Scots finished third in the pool on four points and enter the quarter finals in third spot on Thursday.

Scotland got off to a great start, scoring in the second minute of the match. The ball was won on the left, switched to the right, and played into the circle by Duncan Riddell to find Alan Forsyth who turned the goalkeeper to score. 1-0.

A good save by David Forrester in the Scotland goal kept the Poles at bay, as they began to play their way into the game following Scotland’s electric opening.

Scotland nearly scored a second goal when a penalty corner resulted in a goalmouth scramble, but a free out was eventually awarded to Poland to release the pressure.

Forrester was called into action early in the second quarter when he made a good save for from a close range reverse strike by Patryk Bulka.

Scotland then went pressing for a second goal and Ben Cosgrove was unlucky not to score it – his eventual shot went up and over following a great run by Wei Adams.

Then a penalty corner for Poland was well dealt with by the Scottish defence who charged it down to keep the score 1-0.

Half time brought in the Blue Sticks with a good 1-0 lead in a close tie of exciting end-to-end action.

It was early in the second half that Poland found an equaliser. A mix up in Scottish defence saw the ball trickle in with Dominic Kotulski getting the final touch to make it 1-1.

The Poles took control of the match and piled on the pressure but the final pass proved elusive against a Scottish defence always alert to clear.

After a series of penalty corners, and relentless Polish pressure, it was Scotland’s Alan Forsyth who proved to be the difference. Forsyth took the ball from the half way line, beat a succession of Polish defenders, and sunk his shot into the back of the net to make it 2-1.

Poland didn’t have much time to find another equaliser but they came close through a penalty corner in the final moments, only to be denied by the leg guards of Forrester before the follow up shot went wide. The Scots held on for the victory, their first of the tournament so far, and await their opponents from Pool A in the quarter finals on Thursday.

Scotland men’s Head Coach Derek Forsyth said, “It was an ugly win. It’s a game we’ll learn from but we’ll need to raise our standards up to where they were in our previous games if we want to progress in the tournament. In the end we won the match without playing as well as we know we can, so that’s pleasing, but we’ll look to improve on this performance.”

Photo by Duncan Gray

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