Good Start To Double Header

17 June 2012 12:08
Scotland's women travel to the Republic of Ireland tomorrow with aches and pains from yesterday's game being eased by the victory and the manner in which it was achieved.

Scotland's women started off on the right path to win all their remaining EURO2013 qualifying group games with an emphatic 8-0 win over Israel at Tynecastle yesterday. Thursday sees Scotland play the Republic of Ireland who should provide a stiffer challenge as was show when the sides met in April when the visitors scored early in the game and Scotland only won the game in the last minutes of the ninety. So nothing will be taken for granted as the squad travel to Ireland tomorrow for the game on Thursday. Coach Anna Signeul was pleased to see how her team responded to the game plan outlined to the media on Thursday.

Anna Signeul pleased with emphatic win (c) Ger Harley | SportPix

After the game she said: "I think it was a very good start, better than we have made in recent games. So it was a target that we had; we should focus on a good start as I said a couple of days ago that we wanted a clean sheet and a focused start, be very good in transition. We knew that we would get a lot of possession but it was as important to keep the team tight, win the ball back immediately. I think we did everything that we want to do in the first half. In the second half we were a little bit of a longer team (from front to back) and you saw what happened. I didn't think we kept the team together so well and we didn't have so many runs to help one another so much. However, it is hard to stay so focused when you are leading seven nil." The atmosphere at the game was marred by a pro-Palestinian demonstration which chanted throughout the game from the Wheatfield Stand. While this is something that the Israel side have had to get used to, it was a bit of a distraction for the home side. "No, it was not a great problem. I don't think the players thought about it much. After the game, some of the players commented on it but I said we can focus on the political thing another day. we focus on football today." An 8-0 win is always welcome and is better than the 8-1 win over Bulgaria in April 2010. A clean sheet is always some thing at Signeul is looking for. She said:  "This is the biggest margin of a win since I arrived to take over the national coaching role. I think we were really good. Seeing the players this week in training and a number of them have been really good especially Kim (Little) has been excellent and I thought she was absolutely fantastic today. She was brilliant. I reminded her at half time that she was carrying a yellow card (from a previous game) so don't do anything stupid. I think we saw half her qualities in the second period as she was just a little bit cautious. We don't want to do anything stupid."

Source: FOOTYMAD