England clobber Scotland, 3-1 and clinch the series 2-0: Hockey Recap
Scotland’s men national team lost their second game of the two-match friendly series against England by 3-1 that was held yesterday, May 21 at Lilleshall.
The Scottish men had displayed an improved game in the second friendly against the host team. They opened the match in a dominating way with the ball possession and some early attacks.
In the first half, Scotland’s Gareth Hall made a tremendous first-minute goal attempt, but it was cleared by the English goal-keeper. However, in the next five minutes Scotland rushed back to the English defensive circle and Gordon McIntyre delivered the
opening score at 1-0.
This goal was a combined effort by the Scottish strikers when Gavin Byers gave a pass that was found by Hall near the post and was slot into the net. Russel Garcia was also found on the front foot in making attempts for a score.
Unfortunately, Scotland failed to make any further additions to the score-board until half-time. By the time, England managed to steal an equaliser for them until half-time, locking the scores at 1-1. On the whole, the guest team also succeeded in holding
the English team taking any lead in the first half, which was a huge achievement.
The second half did not work well for the Scottish men because the English team had got back into action. On the 45th minute mark, they received a penalty corner that got converted into a score when the Scottish goal-keeper Mark Fulton failed
to deny their attempt. English took the lead at 2-1 to which Scotland’s Hall attempted an attack that met Wei Adams, who failed to put sufficient force onto the ball, and missed the target.
Later in the 55th minute, England took advantage of the weak display of defence by Scotland whent hey failed to clear the ball out of the defensive circle. Resultantly, the ball fell into the hands of an English striker, sealing their third goal
at 3-1.
During the rest of the play, Scotland kept on attacking attempting shots that went unlucky to hit the net and the scores remained at 3-1 until the second half concluded.
Despite the loss, the Scottish team’s manager Eugene Connolly was quite pleased with the team’s performance and stated, "There were a lot of positives in the first half, we kept possession well and looked good, but we allowed the English back into the game
just before half-time, which they didn`t deserve. England were the better side in the second half, but it was a much better performance than the first game."
The series was a clean sweep for England by 2-0 with two defeats to Scotland at 5-0 and 3-1, respectively.
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