William Marshall earns bronze-medal for Scotland in EuroHockey Nations Championship II in Ukraine
Late strike by William Marshall led the Scottish national Men’s hockey team to a hard fought 4-3 victory over Austria in the third place play-off match in the EuroHockey Nations Championship II played in Vinnitsa, Ukraine on Sunday, August 14 the final day
of the championship.
The match was played in a competitive mode where the Scottish Men remained very clinical throughout the entire match, dominating their rivals in the first thirty five minutes by scoring two goals while the second half was evenly balance between the sides
where both the teams scored twice while the Austrians scored a single goal in the first half.
The Scottish Men completely dominated their Austrian counterparts from the starting whistle till the interval as they took the early lead in the opening moments of the first thirty five minutes when Alan Forsyth opened the Scottish account in the 5th
minute by making a rebound on the shot from Dan Coultas which initially was saved by the Austrian goalkeeper but the Scottish lead lasted only for few moments as the Austrian replied just a minute after the Scottish strike when Alexander Bele levelled the
score in the 6th minute with the help of a beautiful field goal. However, the Scottish Men continued their efforts and tried very hard to regain the lead and eventually did it just two minutes before the interval when Niall Stott converted a penalty
stroke into a goal in the 33rd minute that lasted till the interval.
In the second half the Scottish Men looked as aggressive as in the first half and once again they scored early as the game started. They doubled their lead ten minutes into the match when Kenneth Bain scored the third goal for the Scottish team in the 45th
minute; really that was a ferocious shot by Bain.
However, the Austrians came back strongly in the second half and scored their second goal in the 46th minute, a minute after the third by the Scots and once again brought the lead down to one goal. The scorer was Matthias Gero with a drag flick.
Fourteen minutes after the Austrians once again were on the move when they levelled the score in the 60th minute with Michael Korper converted a penalty corner into the equaliser.
However, it was last 90 seconds of the match and both of the teams were showing some desperate efforts to claim the bronze medal when the Scottish Men succeeded in scoring their fourth and the deciding goal of the match that took them to the winning podium.
This time it was William Marshall who did the job for the Scottish in the 69th minute when he made a beautiful field goal.
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