Scotland’s women draw with Belgium in Dublin

Scotland Women in DublinScotland’s women played out a highly-competitive 0-0 draw with Belgium in the 4-Nations tournament in Dublin. There were many positives to take from the performance against an impressive Belgium side who finished second in the group.

The game against Belgium had added importance with the Scots propping up the table on goal difference. Following a 4-1 defeat to hosts Ireland and a 1-1 with Chile, the Scots were looking for a win to leapfrog Belgium in the tournament standings. The Belgians came into the game off the back of a 3-2 defeat to Ireland and a 2-1 win over Chile so the game promised to be a challenging one for the Scots.

The game ended a scoreless draw but saw a good performance from the Scottish team. It was a hard-fought result to what was a very tight game that could have gone either way.

Scotland had good chances – Charlotte Watson and Kaz Marshall both had good opportunities to score and give the Scots a well-deserved goal.

Head Coach Gordon Shepherd said he was very happy with the application and effort of the players. He said Scotland could probably create more chances, which positively shows the potential of his team. He said the result shows good progress from last year’s game, where Scotland lost 1-0, especially considering he has a young team who learned a lot from the experience this time round. The performance gives Shepherd confidence for the game against Belgium today as the tournament nears its conclusion – it is a game that Shepherd is looking forward to.

It was an all-round good performance by the team but Scotland’s goalkeeper Nikki Cochrane did particularly well once again for her country. A stand out save came early doors when Belgium’s Jill Boon had an opportunity from a penalty corner, but found Cochrane more than a match to the effort. Cochrane has had an excellent 4-Nations and has been one of Scotland’s stand-out players. Katie Robertson also played well as did Nikki Lloyd who was a driving force for the Scots throughout the game.

After her clean sheet, Scotland goalkeeper Nicki Cochrane said: ‘It was a big improvement from first two games defensively, and it’s great to keep a clean sheet against a higher ranked team which should give us confidence going in to the crossover games. It’s great after a summer of training to bring this young squad together in a tournament situation leading into an important year next year’

Scotland finished the group in third position and play Belgium again today at 5pm.

 

 

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