Scottish Hockey

Gordon Shepherd names Scotland Women's squad for European competition

10 January 2012

Scotland Head Coach Gordon Shepherd has named his senior women's squad for Scotland's participation in the EuroHockey Indoor Nations Championship II from 20-22 January.

The tournament takes place in Slagelse, Denmark and the Scots will face hosts Denmark, France and Switzerland in Pool A of the competition. In Pool B, England, Lithuania, Russia and Slovakia will play a round robin to determine progress to the cross-over stage.

The Scots were relegated from the top European division in 2010, narrowly missing out on retaining their place in Championship after the team lost out on goal difference to Poland in the final Pool C standings.

As Shepherd is keen to emphasise, the European competition presents an opportunity to assess players on the fringes of his outdoor Scotland squad as well as the established internationals:

"Our focus at this tournament is to look at players who didn't play for Scotland during the outdoor international season in the summer. We want to progress these players' development within the set-up of the senior squad and the indoor Europeans allows these individuals to experience the intensity of international competition.

"Therefore, we won't be taking any indoor specialists as such, but we won't be there just to make up the numbers either; promotion is a realistic and achievable target."

Scotland international Kat Cameron will captain the side, with Grove Menzieshill team-mate Leigh Fawcett her deputy as a vice-captain.  Morag McLellan and Amy Brodie step up from the Scotland U21 side that competed at the Junior Nations Championship last year, whilst Susan McGilveray and Nikki Lloyd are also included.

For more information about the EuroHockey Indoor Nations Championship II, please visit the EuroHockey website

Scotland Senior Women: Amy Gibson, Susan McGilveray, Morag McLennan, Kareena Marshall, Nikki Lloyd (all Milne Craig Clydesdale Western), Kat Cameron, Leigh Fawcett, Nicki Cochrane, Becky Merchant (all Grove Menzieshill), Becky Ward (VWS Dundee Wanderers), Nikki Kidd (Manheimmer HC), Amy Brodie (CALA Edinburgh) Reserves: Ali Howie (Milne Craig Clydesdale Western), Nicola Skrastin (Milne Craig Clydesdale Western), Mairi Drummond (CALA Edinburgh).