The Scotland Senior Women, including Aimee Clark and Leigh Fawcett, began the first of a series of three hockey games against Ireland at sunny Forthbank, Stirling on Friday 23rd July,  with a single goal victory.

Scotland took the lead early in the second half with former GIS athlete, Nikki Kidd, firing home a drag flick from a corner. A tactical switch after the restart had also led to a much more effective performance with several good chances being created.

The series continued the following day where they won the second game of the series 2-1. The Scots took the lead midway through the first half. The second half followed a similar pattern although the Irish stunned the home team when a snap shot from the edge of the circle nestled  into the top corner of the net. Scotland responded with what was to prove the winner.

The Senior Women completed a very satisfying weekend with a comfortable 3-1 win on the Sunday afternoon. Gordon Shepherd’s team therefore won the overall series by the convincing margin of 3-0. The coaching staff continued to ring the changes as they prepare to make their Commonwealth Games squad selection.

Scotland took the lead from a” switch left” corner routine to give the Scots the first half lead. 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 Susan Hamilton to deflect past a stranded Irish keeper. Ten minutes later Scotland sealed the game when Clark drove the ball cleanly into the keeper’s right hand corner. The Irish countered with a late consolation goal.

Coach Shepherd expressed his pleasure at the work put in by the entire squad over the weekend and also commented “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 twenty required.”