Top six finish in Dublin

FIH CHAMPIONS CHALLENGE – DUBLIN  29 SEPTEMBER – 7
OCTOBER

A top six finish is the aspiration of Scotland women`s
coach Gordon Shepherd as his charges are in Dublin for the annual
FIH Champions Challenge. 

Although the Scots surpassed themselves last year by taking the
bronze medal, Shepherd is looking to maintain Scotland`s status in
a tournament where all the sides, apart from late replacement
Wales, are above the Scots in the world rankings.

This may seem a middle-of-the-road target, but the tournament is
a cut-throat affair with the top team promoted to the elite
Champions Challenge next year, but also the bottom two sides are
relegated.     Also Shepherd is without three
of his best players, Emily Maguire, Laura Bartlett and goalkeeper
Abi Walker are not available to the coach, they have been cup-tied
after playing for Great Britain in the Champions Trophy in
Argentina at the start of the year.

The Scots open the Dublin event with a pool competition against
the United States, hosts Ireland and South Africa.   But
in this unusual format, the crucial match is the subsequent
quarter-finals where Shepherd`s charges would play either
Australia, India, Belgium or Wales from the other
pool.    The winner of this match will qualify for
the promotion matches, while the loser is consigned to the
relegation dog-fight.

The quality of the event is confirmed as four of the teams in
Dublin, Australia, USA, South Africa and Belgium are on the back of
competing in the recent London Olympics, and Shepherd sees this as
a real challenge.   “It is fantastic to be playing
countries who have just competed in the Olympics, as always we want
to challenge ourselves, and USA and South Africa will certainly
give us that challenge in the pool competition.”

Shepherd has build up a positive ethos in the side that ensures
problems for higher ranked teams.   Against South Africa,
the Scots drew 2-2 in the last Champions Challenge, then beat them
2-0 in a subsequent test series, only to lose most recent series
4-0 at Titwood earlier this year.  In Dublin 2011 Shepherd`s
charges beat the USA 3-1 in the pool match but lost 3-0 to the same
side in the semi-final stages.   Just a couple of weeks
ago the Scots beat Ireland 2-1 in a three test match series.

Shepherd sees a sound defence as the pathway to success. 
“There is a lot of experience and talent in the defence, and it
gives us a solid platform to build on and attack from.” 

But the Scotland coach has anxieties up front.   “We
are a very attacking minded team and we always create a lot of
chances.  But the recent World League in Prague was a
disappointment in the amount of chances we converted from what we
created, but we have been working hard on this in training since
then, so I`m hopeful of seeing a difference in
Dublin.”  

Although eleven of the squad were in the bronze medal team at
the same venue last year, Shepherd has rung the changes as well,
Aileen Davis, Susan McGilveray and Nikki Lloyd have come into the
squad along with under 21 players Nicola Skrastin and Sarah
Robertson, so there seems a good blend of youth and experience.

The Scots open their account with a pool game against the United
States on Saturday.

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