Captain reflects on ups and downs of HomeNationsresults

Scotland futsal team captain Scott Mollison is reflecting on a mixed bag of results at the Home Nations.

The Scots defeated hosts Northern Ireland in their tournament opener, but then lost out to England and Wales.

Perth man Mollison, who plays for Jeanfield Swifts, said: “I feel that the tournament is definitely stronger than it ever has been and much more competitive.

“There are many positives to take and the main one for me is the improvements that we have shown against England.

“The first year we got beat 9-0, then 5-1 and this time we lost 3-1.

“Although it is just gradual steps, there are improvements.

“We looked a lot harder to break down this year and you could see frustration creeping into a few of the England players.

“But, unfortunately, after defending so well we lost a well-worked set piece.

“You are going to be under pressure against teams like England, who train much more frequently.”

A closing 6-2 defeat against Wales brought particular disappointment for Mollison.

He added: “We massively let ourselves down against Wales after a positive start.

“But we allowed them far too many early chances and they punished us, which meant we were chasing the game after just 10 minutes.”

The Scottish squad, which for the Home Nations included eight players from the Perthshire area, is now looking forward to the World Cup qualifiers.

Mollison said: “The Home Nations has been a very good warm-up tournament for the World Cup qualifiers at the end of January.

“The draw will be made on December 12 and the boys are really excited to see where we are going.”

The captain also told how the training regime will be upped in preparation and added: “We will now have four or five training sessions before we go away and analyse the positive and negatives from the Home Nations.

“We’ll take that into training so we are as well prepared as we can be going into the qualifiers.” It’s the first season they’ve ever played together but Fraser and Scott Smith are determined to link-up to fire Jeanfield Swifts to league success.

Manager Ross Gunnion moved quickly to secure deals for the St Madoes brothers after they were made available from former club Broughty Athletic.

Fraser, a former St Johnstone youth player, returns to the Riverside having previously spent nearly four years with the club.

The 25-year-old is delighted to return and said: “It was an easy decision to come back. There have been real improvements on and off the park since I left.

“Me and Scott have trained together throughout the years but this is the first season we’ve actually played together.

“We compliment each other well – and maybe fall out on the park every now and again!

“There is going to be competition for every single