Senior Women Training Camp RoundUp

02 March 2016

 

SCOTLAND  1   GERMANY  5

Scotland lost their final friendly international 5-1 against Germany in Stellenbosch (South Africa), but pride of place must go to Dundee Wanderers` Charlotte Watson, the Tayside teenager scored her first Scotland goal to put her side a goal up in the first quarter.

 

The senior squad newcomer drove into the circle, then made her way along the base-line and calmly slid the ball under the goalkeeper for the opener.    The Scots had other chances to add to their lead, they had three penalty corners which came to nothing, but the best chance fell to Edinburgh University`s Becky Merchant whose reverse stick shot cannoned off a post to safety.   

The clinical Germans were soon back in the game and reached the interval 3-1 ahead.

 

The Scots had several chances in the second half, Nicola Skrastin and Watson had the best of them but were foiled by the goalkeeper, but the Germans added to their total with two further penalty corner conversions.

 

Although the Scots only won one of their six international matches against teams well above them in the international rankings and preparing for Rio, coach Gordon Shepherd was delighted with the trip to South Africa.

 

“We achieved all the targets that were set and more, there were no underperformers and some players did better than expected,” said Shepherd.   “This was a worthwhile exercise and it looks promising as we prepare for the World League in 2017.”

 

 

 

01 March 2016

 

SCOTLAND   0  INDIA  3

 

Although Scotland lost the second friendly international 3-0 against India at Stellenbosch yesterday, coach Gordon Shepherd was pleased with the overall improvement in his squad`s performance from the first game which they lost 5-0.

 

It was hardly a level playing field, Shepherd is just starting a squad rebuilding programme for important tournaments in 2017 while India, four places above the Scots in the world rankings, are in the final throes of preparation for the Rio Olympics.

 

The Indians managed to score twice in the first half, yet the Scots had several chances to find the net, Robyn Collins had a couple of opportunities from penalty corners while Becky Merchant and Fiona Burnet came close from open play.

The Scots dominated the second period but against the run of play India added another.    In reality the Scots had the better chances, again Collins was twarted by the Indian goalkeeper at penalty corners while Merchant, Millie Brown and Nicola Skrastin also found the same barrier from open play opportunities.

“I`m delighted with the improvement from the first Indian game, this time I felt the score flattered them and there were certainly not three goals in the game, so this is very encouraging given we only had five players in the squad from last year`s Europeans,” said Shepherd.

 

 

28 February 2016

SOUTH AFRICA  0  SCOTLAND 1

Rebuilding an international squad can sometimes have growing pains, Scotland`s women lost their first two games against South Africa 2-1 and 8-1 in Cape Town, but it all came good yesterday with a well deserved 1-0 win to finish the three test match series on a high.  

Although Gordon Shepherd`s charges lost the overall series a win over the world number 11, six places above them in the rankings, is a huge achievement on their own patch.

The first half was goalless, it was the Scots who had the better chances with four penalty corners and other open play opportunities, the best of them fell to Becky Merchant and newcomer Heather Howie.

Early in the third quarter the Scots struck at another penalty corner, Becky Ward switched the ball on to Robyn Collins and the Surbiton striker buried the chance into the bottom left hand corner of the net.  

The Scots did not retire into their shell to protect their precious lead, in contrast they pushed to add to their tally, Merchant was unlucky to see her shot rebound off a post while Howie had several dangerous runs into the circle, but there was no further addition to the score.

“This was a fantastic team performance, the girls raised themselves after yesterday`s disappointing poor result.   This was no scraped victory, the squad thoroughly deserved their victory with a powerful performance on the day,” said Gordon Shepherd, Scotland`s coach.

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