Hockey: Scots in narrow defeats to Russia and Ireland in Champions event

THERE was a poor start for Scotland in the Champions Challenge in Lille, defeats against Russia and Ireland leaving coach Russell Garcia disappointed and his side bottom of the group with only a match against hosts France to follow tomorrow.

Against Russia yesterday, the Scots dominated the opening exchanges but penalty corner opportunities were spurned when Willie Marshall shot wide and then Fergus Dunn should have done better from a rebound. The Russians took the lead against the run of play when Pavel Golubev volleyed high into the net. The Scots continued to press and the best chance before the interval fell to Kenny Bain but he failed to connect with a John Harris pass.

The Scots were caught cold 40 seconds into the second half as the Russians doubled their lead. However, a comeback started when, in 44 minutes, a Dan Coultas penalty corner strike was saved and an agile Michael Christie flicked the rebound into the net. Within a minute the Scots were level when Bain created the opening down the left and his pass to Alan Forsyth was drilled into the net. The Scots almost took the lead for the first time, but Gavin Byers' effort hit the side net.

Garcia's charges then proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot as a poor defensive hit-out was picked up by the Russians and Evgeny Mokrousov gratefully rounded Carr and rolled the ball home. The Scots now started to push up for the equaliser and were caught on the rebound. To his credit Forsyth chased back almost 60 yards only to mistime his tackle in the circle, and Dmitry Azarov scored from the spot with a low shot past Carr to seal the result.

"I felt we were the better side, but after totally dominating the first 20 minutes we found ourselves a goal down. Then we did very well to get back to level terms at 2-2, but conceded a very poor third goal. To the players' credit we played a lot of good hockey, but didn't take our chances when it mattered," said Eugene Connolly, Scotland's manager.

On Saturday against Ireland, Scotland pulled the score back from 3-0 down just after the interval to 3-2 with ten minutes left. But it proved too little too late as Ireland held on.

The Irish controlled the first half, Alan Giles and William McCabe both scoring, and it could have been more but for some fine saves by Mark Fulton in the Scotland goal. The Scots' few chances fell to a Coultas penalty corner that went wide, Gareth Hall who took too long in the circle and the opportunity evaporated, and Byers whose shot was charged down by the Irish keeper just on the interval.

The Scots looked dead and buried two minutes into the second half when Conor Harte converted a rather soft penalty after the defence had failed to clear the danger, but slowly the tide began to turn. With 12 minutes left the Scots were awarded their second penalty corner, Coultas' initial shot was saved by the keeper but Byers was on hand to scoop home the rebound.Two minutes later a hard cross from the left by Fergus Dunn was brilliantly deflected in by Alan Forsyth for Scotland's second.

In a frenzied finale the Scots pressed for the equaliser and Gareth Hall and two Irish players found their way to the sin bin, but Ireland held out.