Women's Hockey: Scotland v Northern Ireland

Emma Stewart and Philippine Berly both shared the match both as the Northern Irish team strolled to a win against Scotland, who were outplayed in midfield and stopped by a resolute Irish defence who, despite giving away possession under often no pressure at all, deserved a clean sheet.

Stewart starred all afternoon for NI, chasing every ball as her read hair bobbed and weaved through blue shirts, stopping Scotland’s attacks so they could hardly test the NI goal. Meanwhile Anna Kellner was called into action many times, saving her defence who gave away possession cheaply and often. Berly nearly scored seven minutes in, and Suman Bala shot hard but not angled enough to trouble the keeper in one of the game’s few short corners. The officials were thus content to let play go on and the flow favoured NI who scored after twenty minutes when Bala played in Stewart at a short corner. Last-gasp Scottish defending briefly kept the score at one-nil but Stewart’s slow-motion rounding of three players led to her second, stroked into the net. When Scotland did dare to venture into the NI D, they could not find their own players, politely keeping the ball away from the goal. A Kellner triple save just after half time, in which she denied Stewart her hattrick, was followed by Berly’s first goal. At the other end, Kirsty McConnell, the Scottish number nine, was guilty of weighting her passes too heavily while NI’s attackers capitalised on the poor Scottish defending more adeptly than Scotland seized on their opponents’ errors. An uncharacteristic miss of the target by Scarlett Holdsworth fired Scotland up but pressure never told, and Berly was able to find room for her second in the final minute of play.