Hockey: Garcia gives youth a chance to shine against England

The selection process is now becoming serious as head coach Russell Garcia takes a Scotland squad to play England in two matches at Lilleshall this weekend, the next stage in the build-up for the Champions Challenge in France and then the European Nations Trophy in Ukraine in the summer.

Both sides will be short of their Great Britain players, just returned from their bronze-medal triumph at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia, so Garcia will have to do without defender Niall Stott, who played in every game, and injured striker Stephen Dick.

"Russell has cut the squad to 24 after the Great Britain Super League, and the England games are the first outing for the truncated squad," said Eugene Connolly, Scotland manager. Connolly also remarked that strikers Kenny Bain and Fergus Dunn would not be recalled from their clubs in the Netherlands and Spain respectively.

Garcia has retained his determination to give youth its place, Glynhill Kelburne striker Alan Forsyth gets his chance to add to his goal tally at the top level after scoring four times in the 5-1 Under-21 defeat of Canada, while clubmate Michael Bremner, this season's junior player of the year, and Callum Milne who recently moved to English premier league side Surbiton, are given their opportunity to impress.

Graham Moodie, who has amassed 108 Scotland caps, returns to the side. The former Western Wildcats player, now with Edinburgh University, has been in and out recently through a series of niggling injury issues.