Scots rue missed chances against Russians in Lille


Scotland lost their second pool match of the Champions Challenge in
Lille when they went down 4-2 to Russia, in a game that they
dominated for long periods, but were victims of clinical finishing
by the Russians.

The Scots dominated the opening exchanges, penalty corner
opportunities were spurned when Willie Marshall shot wide and then
Fergus Dunn should have done better from a rebound after Can
Coultas` initial drag flick was well blocked by the Russian keeper.
  The Scots were running the game, but ironically it was the
Russians who took the lead when Pavel Golubev volleyed a shot high
into the net after Phil Carr had stopped the initial shot.
 The Scots continued to press and the best chance before the
interval fell to a diving Kenny Bain but he failed to make contact
with a John Harris square pass.

The Scots were caught cold 40 seconds into the second as the
Russians doubled their lead.  Then the comeback started, in 44
minutes a Dan Coultas penalty corner strike was saved by the
Russian goalkeeper and an agile Michael Christie flicked the
rebound into the net.  Within a minute the Scots were level,
Bain created the opening down the left and his pass to Alan Forsyth
was drilled into the net.  The Scots were now rampant and
almost took the lead for the first time, but Gavin Byers` effort
hit the side net.

Garcia`s charges then proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot, a
poor defensive hit-out was picked up by the Russians and Evgeny
Mokrousov gratefully rounded Carr and rolled the ball home.
 The Scots now started to push up for the equaliser and were
caught on the rebound, to his credit Forsyth chased back almost 60
yards only to mistimed his tackle in the circle, and Dmitry Azarov
scored from the spot with a low shot past Carr to seal the
result.

“I felt we were the better side, but after totally dominating the
first 20 minutes we found ourselves a goal down.  Then we did
very well to get back to level terms at 2-2, but conceded a very
poor third goal.  To the players` credit we played a lot of
good hockey, but didn`t take our chances when it mattered,” said
Eugene Connolly, Scotland`s manager.

Scotland`s final pool match is against hosts France on Tuesday,
only a win will take Garcia`s charges off the foot of the
table.

Scotland lost their second pool match of the Champions
Challenge in Lille when they went down 4-2 to Russia, in a game
that they dominated for long periods, but were victims of clinical
finishing by the Russians.

The Scots dominated the opening exchanges with a number of
penalty corner opportunities. Willie Marshall shot wide and then
Fergus Dunn should have done better from a rebound after Dan
Coultas` initial drag flick was well blocked by the Russian
keeper.

Russia then took the lead when Pavel Golubev volleyed a shot
high into the net after Phil Carr had stopped the initial shot.
 The Scots continued to press and the best chance before the
interval fell to a diving Kenny Bain, stretching to make contact
with a John Harris square pass. Scotland were caught cold 40
seconds into the second half as their opponents doubled their lead
to make it 2-0.

However, in 44 minutes a Dan Coultas penalty corner strike was
saved by the Russian goalkeeper and an agile Michael Christie
flicked the rebound into the net. Within a minute, they were level;
Bain created the opening down the left and his pass to Alan Forsyth
was drilled into the net.  The Scots were now rampant and
almost took the lead for the first time, but Gavin Byers` effort
hit the side net.

Unfortunately, Russia went ahead again for the third time in the
match when a defensive hit-out was picked up by Evgeny Mokrousov
and he rounded Carr to roll the ball home.

The national side started to push for the equaliser and were
caught on the break for the fourth Russian goal. To his credit
Forsyth chased back almost 60 yards only to mistime his tackle in
the circle, and Dmitry Azarov scored from the spot with a low shot
past Carr to seal the result.

“I felt we were the better side, but after totally dominating
the first 20 minutes we found ourselves a goal down.  Then we
did very well to get back to level terms at 2-2, but conceded a
very poor third goal.  To the players` credit we played a lot
of good hockey, but didn`t take our chances when it mattered,” said
Eugene Connolly, Scotland`s manager.

Scotland`s final pool match is against hosts France on
Tuesday.

 

 

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