Hockey: Senior Scots too strong for Ireland as they win series 3-0

Scotland Senior Women completed a very satisfying weekend with a comfortable 3-1 win against Ireland at Forthbank on Sunday afternoon. Gordon Shepherd's team therefore won the overall series by a 3-0 whitewash.

Following Saturday's 2-1 win, the coaching staff continued to ring the changes as they prepared to make their selection of the squad who will play in the Commonwealth Games.

Again the formula decided on for yesterday's match proved to be too strong for the Irish, as it had been in the first two encounters, which must have been pleasing for the coach.

Scotland took the lead from a "switch left" corner routine, with Kareena Marshall providing the finish to give the Scots the first-half lead. The Irish defence also had to be alert to foil two attempts from Claire Scott during the first half.

However, the visitors were unlucky to see a short corner attempt hit the post just before the break. Soon after the restart, Scotland doubled their advantage when a well-rehearsed corner move saw Aimee Clark sweep the ball to the right-hand post for her club-mate Susan Hamilton to deflect into the net.

Ten minutes later, Scotland sealed the game when Clark took a pass from Ali Bell and drove the ball cleanly into the right-hand corner. The Irish countered with a late consolation goal. Shepherd expressed his pleasure at the work put in by the entire squad over the weekend.

He said: "It was good to see things that we have been working hard on in training begin to come to fruition in match game situations. We now face the very difficult task of trimming this squad down to the 20 required."