Nerves play part as young Scots are sunk

HOCKEY: The opening fixture against Germany in the Volvo European Junior Nations Championships, in Den Bosch, was a baptism of fire for the inexperienced Scotland under-21 side, as they went down 6-1 to one of the tournament favourites.

Graham Moodie’s charges made a nervous start and the Germans took advantage, opening the scoring in five minutes with a penalty corner strike by Mats Grambusch.

Germany continued to dominate as the Scots fell three behind at the interval through further goals by Benedikt Swiatek and Danny Nguyen Luong. The Scots were not helped by Grange defender Fraser Sands being sin-binned twice for stick offences on either side of the interval.

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In the second half Jan Christopher Ruhr, Niklas Wellen and Dieter Linnekogel advanced the score to 6-0 with 20 minutes still remaining.

With two minutes to go, the Scots took advantage of their only real chance of the contest. A move up the left found Alan Forsyth, who passed the ball on to teenager Lee Morton, but his shot was going wide of the target until Clydesdale’s Scott Lindsay deflected it into the top corner of the net for a consolation strike.

Belgium share top spot with Germany after beating Spain 4-0 in the other pool match.

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