Promising signs but Scotland’s Aspiring squads defeated by clinical England in Lilleshall

Scotland’s Aspiring Girls’ and Boys’ squads took on England at Lilleshall with the girls losing 4-1, while the boys lost 8-1 in a game where the score didn’t quite reflect the performance.

Photo by David McCarthy

England 4-1 Scotland Aspiring Girls

Scotland Aspiring Girls’ were defeated 4-1 by England in the first of two test matches at Lilleshall.

England enjoyed good possession of the ball in the early stages and seven minutes into the contest the home side took the lead with a goal from open play to make it 1-0.

A penalty corner as the opening quarter reached its end saw the English go 2-0 ahead to capitalise in their good early pressure.

Scotland looked dangerous on the counter attack throughout the contest, and it was a counter attack in the second quarter that earned a penalty corner, which led to a goal.

Mhairi Low pounced to score on the rebound from the corner to pull the score back to 2-1, which was how the first half ended.

The good English pressure continued into the second half but Scotland coped well, and sprung a number of threatening counter attacks. Cat Nelli and Zara Kennedy both had good runs where they beat players and fashioned opportunities, but the equaliser evaded them.

As the game progressed the home side were clinical and two finishes, one from a penalty corner, saw them bag two more goals and end the game 4-1 winners.

A good test for Scotland showed promise and the squad, which featured 18 players who hadn’t played together before this contest, will have learned good lessons from the match as they look to add to their game in the next match.

Photo by David McCarthy

England 8-1 Scotland Aspiring Boys

Despite taking an 8-1 defeat against England at Lilleshall, Scotland Aspiring Boys head coach Andrew Brogden took a lot of positives from a contest where the score line didn’t reflect the performance.

An incredibly young Scotland squad took to the pitch and took time to adapt to the speed of the contest.

It was largely an end-to-end contest, with periods of good England possession, and the home team were clinical and took their chances well.

The England goals were evenly spread throughout the match but Scotland created a number of chances of their own in the game.

The Scots showed good quality at times and had a number of short corners but couldn’t find the net. Xavax Cordero also came close on a Scotland counter attack before Pete Caughey almost found the net after some good Scottish play.

In the final quarter Scotland got a deserved goal and it was Caughey who found the net to score a consolation in the 8-1 defeat.

Despite the score line the Scots never let their heads go down and took a lot of positives from their efforts in the game, and will look to build on the performance for the next match.

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