Scotland men face defeat agianst a strong England side

Scotland men caught off guard losing 6-0 to a strong England in their first match at the Investec London Cup this evening.

It’s the first time the men have played since the Four Nations held in Glasgow earlier this year in April and were certainly a bit rusty. With under a minute gone England were awarded a penalty corner for drag flick expert Ashley Jackson to put it past Gavin Sommerville.

This caught Scotland off guard and this followed by three more goals in the first half, some fine saves from Sommerville and great counter attacks with Kenny Bain unlucky not to get a tap on the ball at the near post just before half time.

The Scots were 4-0 down at half time but they came out much stronger in the second half with some end to end play. The Scottish defence denied every chance England threw at them with outstanding saves from Sommerville, denying many England drag flicks on target.

On the 60th minute England put their fifth past Sommerville with a reverse hit at the top of the D, this was shortly followed by a sixth goal. Scotland held and moved the ball well and intercepted the strong English midfield throughout the second half and were unlucky not to pull back a hard earned goal.

SCO v ENG Investec Cup

Gordon McIntyre who has been out for over 15 months due to injury pulled back on the Scotland jersey and despite the loss enjoyed representing his country again;

‘Loved getting back in to the Scotland shirt, yes it’s unfortunate to have lost but we came up against a very good team. We played well and much stronger in the second half, it took time for us to get up to speed and it’s the first time we have had to play together in a couple of months.

‘The pitch is nice and it’s good to be involved with these sort of tournaments as we don’t normally get many opportunities in these, so this is great!’

Head coach Derek Forsyth was frustrated at how his team played at the start but pleased how they showed great improvement as the game went on;

‘Disappointed with the start to lose a first goal as early as we did which put us on a back foot. England obviously smelt blood and then came after us. We caused a lot of our own problems which is disappointing but the second half was much better. We got used to the pace and after not playing any matches for two months may have had an effect as you can train as hard as you like but you don’t get your game legs.

‘Disappointed first half performance but a pleasing second half and we will move forward from that tomorrow. We were undoubtedly rusty and that showed. We can play better and everyone said that at the end but the boys understand that and we can certainly move forward.’

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