Irish Senior Women finish with draw vs Scotland

Ireland's Senior Women's team rounded off their 4 game stay at Mossley Hockey in Newtownabbey today with a 1-1 draw vs. Scotland.

Ireland had already beaten Scotland twice this week and the visitors were keen to ensure that the Green Army would not make it three in a row. Both teams were offensively minded from the offset which led to a very open game of hockey throughout today's encounter. In a scoreless first half of play the game flowed from end to end as both sides earned a number of penalty corners that could not be turned into scores on the board. Megan Frazer, Nikki Symmons, Lisa Jacob & Katie Mullan were all involved in some of Ireland's most creative play of the half but none could find the target in an exciting game.

Midway through the second half Ireland finally took the lead as a penalty corner variation was deflected home by Nikki Symmons following good work from Anna O'Flanagan to set up the score. Scotland rallied well though and will be happy with their efforts to get back into the game to avoid a 3rd successive defeat. Their play was awarded when Lloyd followed up a counter attack that was initially defended well by Ireland to fire past Emma Gray in the Green Army goal.

After final hooter went to confirm the 1-1 draw, Electric Ireland Senior International Coach, Darren Smith could contemplate the effectiveness of the series in Newtownabbey "After a good week where we were able to play 24 squad players, I feel we have made some progress. I really enjoyed the series of matches here and Mossley Hockey Club were great hosts in combination with the Mossley Mill. We were extremely pleased with all the arrangements"

Smith continued "Now we need to look forward to the European Championships both in terms of enjoying the experience and also playing well. The coming weeks sees us initially head to Cork for a 3 day camp at University College Cork, which we are very much looking forward to, before narrowing the squad further and getting back into some hard training. We have a great group of girls who have a fantastic attitude and want to play well. All of us are working hard towards this"