Holly Cram leads Scottish Women into semi-finals of EuroHockey Nations Championship II in Poland
Scottish Women’s hockey team made it through to the semi-finals stage of the EuroHockey Nations Championship II which is being played in Poznan, Poland as they defeated the hosts, Poland 2-1 in their final group B match played on Thursday, August 11.
The Scottish Women have now qualified for semi-final along with Belarus from pool B and now will face the challenge of Russia today, on August 13 in the second semi-final of the day.
Requiring only a draw to confirm their place into the semi-final the Scottish women marched into the field nervously as they were defeated by Belarus in their previous group match after they had won their opener against Wales.
Although the Scottish ladies went down in the first thirty five minutes as by a single goal by the hosts yet they recovered very well in the second phase of the game where they scored a double strike that led them to the semi-final.
The match started slowly and the first twenty five minutes of the first half was not very entertaining as no goal was scored in the initial part of the first half. Although a number of good chances were created by the Scottish Women early in the first half
but they remained unlucky as a drag flick from Nikki Kidd and a shot from Holly Cram were well saved by the Polish goal-keeper. However, it was Poland which first broke the ice when Natalia Wisniewska scored the opening goal in the 25th minute and
it lasted till the interval.
However, in the second half the Scottish athletes played more dominant hockey as compared to the first half in which they remained goalless in spite of some wonderful efforts. They were more aggressive in their approach in the second part of the game and
scored two valuable and important goals. Their first blow to the Polish side happened just four minutes into the second half when Alison Bell opened the Scottish account on a penalty corner in the 39th minute. The match remained very tight in the
remaining time as both of the teams played toe-to-toe and did provide more chances to each other to do any further damage.
However, Scottish ladies once again penetrated into the Polish circle and succeeded in bringing the result into their favour just three minutes before the close of the play. Holly Cram did the job for Scotland this time as she scored her first goal of the
match, a wonderful field goal. The match concluded at the same score, 2-1 to Scotland.
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