Scotland beaten in Banbridge

A spirited second half performance was not enough to claw back a result for Scotland women against a clinical Ireland in Banbridge. The second match of the three-game series, the first of which ended 1-1, saw the Scots lose 6-2 after being 4-0 down at half time.

The game got underway at a wet Banbridge and it was Ireland who started off on the front foot.

The contest was five minutes old when Kate Lloyd broke into Scotland’s circle but she was met by some good defending and Scotland effectively cleared the danger.

It was the home side who struck the opening goal and it came when a nice pass by Chloe Brown found Naomi Carroll in the Scotland D, Carroll rounded the last defender and scored with 11 minutes played.

Scotland v Ireland on 6th November 2016 – Photo by John Preece

Then at the end of the first quarter Emma Rusty was on hand to put Ireland 2-0 up at the first break.

Early in the second quarter and Ireland took advantage of a green card being shown to Kareena Cuthbert to score a third. Scotland hadn’t organised when Lloyd hit the net after Jessica McMaster weaved her way past challenging defenders to make it 3-0.

It then went to 4-0 when Zoey Wilson scored an easy tap in after a drag flick was saved at a penalty corner.

Scotland came close to pulling one back before half time through a penalty corner routine. Emily Dark went searching for Fiona Burnet but her deflection went wide of the mark.

The third quarter got underway with Scotland dominating territory early doors.

The Scots piled on the pressure from a series of penalty corners. It was the third penalty corner that was made to count as the umpire awarded Scotland a stroke, which Fiona Bruce converted to make it 4-1 on 39 minutes.

Just two minutes later and Scotland fashioned a good chance for Lorna Cruickshank, a pass zipped across goal but was put just wide by Cruickshank at pace.

It was from another penalty corner that Scotland scored a second goal. This time a sublime drag flick to the keeper’s top left by Rebecca Condie hit the back of the net to pull it back to 4-2 to Ireland.

Scotland v Ireland in 6th November 2016 – Photo by John Preece

The goal brought to a close a quarter completely dominated by Scotland and set up an exciting finale in the rain of Banbridge.

Scotland nearly pulled another goal back early in the final quarter when they took advantage of Irish errors in defence, but Charlotte Watson fired wide of the target.

Then a turnover gave Lucy Lanigan a chance to score but Emma Buckley and Roisin Upton combined to clear the danger.

As Scotland threw caution to the wind to find an equaliser it was Ireland who scored in the final five minutes to put the game to bed. Aisling Naughton crossed the ball to find Lloyd to finish the contest despite the best attempts by Lucy Camlin in goal.

With the seconds ticking down Ireland added a sixth through Chloe Brown to finish the scoring and win the match 6-2.

Scotland women’s Head Coach Gordon Shepherd said, “Ireland deserved to win the match, we had a poor first half and were punished for it. The players showed great character in the third quarter to play their way back into the match, and we had chances to score more, but we got picked off on the counter attack a couple of times at the end.

“There’s a lot of young players in the team so this will be a learning experience, and there are definitely positives to take from the character shown by the players in the second half. We know where we need to improve for the next match.”

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