Scotland women lose to Ireland in Belfast

Ireland women ran out 4-0 winners as they welcomed Scotland to Belfast in the first of a two-match test series. The series comes as both teams prepare for the EuroHockey Championships this summer.

The Scots were under pressure from minute one and struggled to get going. It didn’t take long for the hosts to open the scoring and it came through an attack down the right, and a shot across goal into the far corner for 1-0.

The second quarter brought the second goal, and Ireland went 2-0 ahead when they played through the Scotland defence and exposed Jess Buchanan in goal with a one-v-one. A clinical finish doubled the lead.

The third quarter was stalemate but in the fourth the Irish struck twice. The first was a penalty corner which flicked off a defender and in, before a long overhead into the Scotland circle was touched by an attacker into the goal for 4-0.

Scotland had three penalty corner opportunities in the contest but were unable to fashion any real chances and suffered defeat in the first meeting of the series.

Head Coach Chris Duncan said, “This is a wake-up call for us, a reality check, and shows us the level required to play top eight teams. All the goals we lost were preventable, and we never really showed our defensive identity today.

“Tomorrow, we’ll be better. Today was tough, but we’ll regroup and come out to show improvement tomorrow. It’s 100 days until the Euros, which will be a proud moment for us, and we need to reach the standard we know we’re capable of.”

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