Hockey: Mission accomplished for Shepherd and Scots' golden girls

Scotland coach Gordon Shepherd took his charges to Poznan with the gold medal and promotion to Europe's elite as his targets, and this he achieved with a controlled and disciplined 2-0 win over Belarus in yesterday's final of the European Nations Championship II.

Having celebrated defender Leigh Fawcett's 50th cap, the Scots got down to the business of dominating the proceedings and Holly Cram almost provided the lead but her deflection beat the goalkeeper but also went wide of the target. Within a minute the Scots were ahead. Vikki Bunce caught the defence sleeping with a quickly taken free hit, she moved directly into the circle and beat the keeper with a vicious low shot. Scotland continued to make chances, and Nikki Kidd twice had her efforts thwarted by the keeper before the break.

Not unnaturally Belarus came out intent on getting back into the game and had a couple of early penalty corners, the first was saved by keeper Abi Walker, the other was blocked and finally cleared by Fawcett. The Scots sealed the gold medal midway through the half, a pulsating move up the left involving Kidd, Sam Judge and Ali Bell fed the ball on to Cram whose shot was stopped illegally on the line by a defender. Catriona Ralph's effort from the spot seemed to have been blocked by the keeper but the ball emerged to squirm over the line for the crucial second goal.

The Scots were content to play out the remainder of the contest to achieve well deserved promotion. To add icing to the cake, the Scots were awarded the fair play award and Walker the goalkeeper of the tournament.

On Saturday Scotland had cruised past highly-rated Russia 2-1 in the semi-final. The fact that the Scots had nine penalty corners to Russia's none was symbolic of the total domination of Gordon Shepherd's charges.

The Scots took the initiative right from the start and had several chances to take the lead in the first half, Kidd and Judge had their penalty corner shots saved by the Russian goalkeeper while a snap-shot by Cram was also brilliantly palmed away from danger, but the sides reached half time goalless.

It was the same story after the interval, although Scots keeper Walker had a brilliant save from one of Russia's few breakaways. Immediately after the Scots finally gained their reward for all their pressure, a speculative cross from Kidd eluded the Russian defenders and found Wyllie at the far post who simply rolled the ball over the line. The result was effectively sealed at Scotland's seventh penalty corner, the ball was switched left to Kareena Marshall and her strike was deflected home by Bell.Wyllie had the ball in the net again but her strike was disallowed as dangerous, and although the Russians scored a late consolation, the Scots comfortably played out the remainder of the game.

Meanwhile, with promotion already out the window after a 2-0 defeat by the Czechs, Scotland's men retrieved some pride with the bronze medal in Vinnitsa after a thrilling 4-3 win over Austria. The Scots went ahead in four minutes when Alan Forsyth scored from a rebound after the goalkeeper had saved Dan Coultas' original penalty corner shot. The Austrians equalised after Wei Adams misjudged a high ball, but the lead was restored just on the interval when Iain Scholefield was demolished by the keeper and Niall Stott converted the resulting penalty with a low shot.

Kenny Bain put the Scots 3-1 up after 50 minutes with a vicious shot after good build-up work by Stephen Dick. The Scots cause took a dip, though, when Forsyth and Scholefield visited the sin bin and the Austrians brought the score back to 3-3 with two penalty corner conversions. But with 90 seconds remaining Gavin Byers made the opening up the left and man-of-the match Willie Marshall launched an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net for the winner. The game ended in a sour note when Gareth Hall picked up a red card at the death.