Kerr and team relish chance to move on to new adventure

Shelley Kerr is keen to put the World Cup post-mortem behind her and focus on a new qualifying campaign.

The Scotland head coach refused to be drawn on details of a meeting with players designed to clear the air following a row in Paris after they were knocked out by Argentina.

“Any meeting between myself and the players is always in-house,” she said ahead of this evening’s clash with Cyprus at Easter Road.

“For me, we focus on the game. We’re all eager to get the game kicked off. The important thing is how good we’ve been in training.”

The Scots also have Albania, Finland and Portugal in their European Championship qualifying group.

Asked if the entire Scotland team and management are all together, Kerr insisted “they always are”.

She added: “They’ve been great in training. Everyone is eager to get started.”

Nicola Docherty says she has been desperate for the Euro 2021 opener to come around from the moment the World Cup dreams fell apart in such spectacular fashion.

The Glasgow City defender told the Scottish Football Association website: “To represent Scotland at a World Cup was a dream come true. It was made that little more special being the first Scotland women’s team ever to qualify. Undoubtedly it is the proudest achievement of my life.

“Naturally we were devastated with the way we were knocked out of the tournament. Ever since, we’ve been desperate to have another game and bounce back.

“The whole squad is really looking forward to the game against Cyprus in front of a strong crowd at Easter Road, especially after the attendance we had for the send-off game at Hampden before the World Cup.

“We want to keep building on the momentum we’ve created and hopefully get our qualification campaign off to a good start.

“The World Cup was amazing but it’s now time to make our next steps as a team and create our next adventure.”

Head coach Shelley Kerr is keen to put the postmortem behind her.