Outclassed Scots suffer seven-goal mauling

Scotland coach Derek Forsyth’s under-21 men’s team were handed a 7-1 lesson in the art of clinical finishing by a classy England side as they continued their preparations for next year’s European Championships in the Netherlands with a relatively new-look squad with only five players remaining from last year’s squad.

England made a blistering start to the game with a four-goal salvo in the first nine minutes. The first goal came courtesy of a fierce reverse stick shot from David Goodfield and was quickly followed when Nick Cooper netted from an acute angle.

Minutes later Scotland were caught again when a shot from James Spain was partially stopped by keeper Sean Hadfield (CALA Edinburgh) but still ended high in the roof of the net and from the restart David Condon added the fourth.

England continued to dominate the half and the only glimmer of a chance for Scotland came minutes before the break when Kelburne’s Alan Forsyth was unable to get his shot off on time.

Scotland enjoyed their most creative period of the game after the break with chances falling to Forsyth, Watsonian’s Matt Connor and Fraser Sands (CALA) but England increased their lead through a Phil Roper set piece.

Coach Forsyth’s men got on the scoresheet when Forsyth made his way along the bye line and his cutback was deflected into the net by an English defender. However, James Spain and Ben Stoney added further goals to seal a comprehensive win for the impressive visitors.

Saturday afternoon had seen England edge out a spirited home team with a narrow single-goal victory. Scotland had mainly frustrated the visitors who enjoyed the majority of possession but were restricted to few chances by a diligent hard working performance.

Scotland had produced some neat passages of play without being able to find any end product with only a Forsyth penalty corner leading to any real threat to England. The only goal came from a set piece when Roper sent a low drag flick past keeper Blair Fotheringham (Durham City) to give England the win.

Before this weekend’s series the coach said: “We are using these games against England as part of our assessment programme for the Europeans where there are also places for the Junior World Cup 2013 at stake.”

Next month Scotland travel to Berlin to take part in the Blau Weiss tournament as Forsyth continues to search for the combinations to bring future success.

Meanwhile, two goals from defender Crista Cullen gave England’s women their second win of the EuroHockey Nations Championship as they beat hosts Germany 2-0 in Monchengladbach.

England’s women – ranked fourth in the world – beat Belgium 4-0 on Saturday and Cullen’s double, with a goal in each half, was enough to see off Germany in yesterday’s match.