Fawcett confident underdogs can upset Auld Enemy
ALMOST inevitably, there has been a lot of hype surrounding today’s opening pool match against the Auld Enemy in the European Nations Championships but Scotland captain Leigh Fawcett is content to play down the occasion.
“It is important for us to prepare for the match against England the same way we will for every game in London,” said Fawcett. “Our last two encounters with England have been close and we will aim to ensure this is another competitive match. As a squad we believe if we put in a good performance we can get a result from this game.”
The Scots underdogs for are this undoubted confrontation. England are seventh in the world rankings, ten places above the Scots, and they are on home soil in front of an expectant home crowd.
But perhaps there is not such a gulf between the sides. At the recent Commonwealth Games, England led 2-1 at the interval, the second half was total Scotland pressure, but the strikers seemed to leave their shooting sticks in the dressing room, and the chance of an upset vanished.
Fawcett and her colleagues at the back will have a key role in today’s encounter. They must put the shackles on the free-scoring England striker Alex Danson if the Scots hope to silence the home supporters.
Gordon Shepherd, Scotland’s coach, takes an optimistic view of the confrontation, believing that all the pressure is on England.
“There
is no
pressure on
us, it’s all on the home side. We’ve dominated large periods of our previous encounters with England but, at the end of the day, it’s all about who scores the most goals,” said Shepherd. “I’m sure we can beat them if we play our best game and they don’t play theirs.”
England’s strength lies in defence, so it is likely that the Scots will get few scoring opportunities. Consequently, victory may well depend on the clinical finishing of Edinburgh University defender-turned-striker Becky Merchant, Mannheimer’s Nikki Kidd and the Dundee Wanderers’ playmaker Vikki Bunce.
The remaining pool matches are against Germany on Monday and Italy two days later. The fifth-ranked Germans will be a handful but Fawcett’s charges produced one of the upsets of the year by beating them 4-3 in Hamburg last month, Merchant (2), Kidd and Fiona Bruce were on target.
But assuming these matches do go to form and a semi-final place is removed from the agenda, the final pool match against Italy could become crucial to Scotland’s survival in Europe’s top flight. The three points from that match would be carried forward to the relegation group competition against the bottom two sides from the other pool.
“Our target is to stay in the A Division. We are confident, if we perform to our potential, we can achieve this,” added Fawcett.
Scotland won the last threematch Test series against Italy two years ago with two draws and a victory. Italy played in the recent World League semi-final in Antwerp and, although they came last, there were some impressive results in individual matches.
Fawcett believes that the full-time training programme initiated from May has greatly enhanced the squad’s development. “The time spent on and off the pitch through the summer has helped everyone develop their own game and to understand what they can offer. Things have really started to come together, we are fully prepared and ready for the tournament.”