Scotland Women’s ‘A’ squad, despite putting up a very brave performance lost 1-0 to Sweden in an International Challenge match in Cyprus this afternoon.

Scotland’s performance saw them go in at half time drawing 0-0, with Sweden who are preparing for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in China in September this year.

A big loss to Scotland was that of their Captain Julie Fleeting, who suffered a head knock in 15 minutes, and who valiantly played on until half time. Fleeting was replaced by an emerging star in the shape of 16 year old Kim Little, who on her second senior cap, put in a very impressive performance.

The Scot’s held on, absorbing much Swedish pressure until the 80th minute, when their was a lot of pressure outside the Scotland box, despite many attempts the ball couldn’t be cleared to safety, which left an opening for Sweden’s midfielder, Fischer to score the only goal of the game in 80 minutes.

This was a very credible performance by the Scot’s, National Coach Anna Signeul, herself a Swede, was pleased with her teams performance and commented, ‘I think we played very well, we had a good attacking game. I really feel the team are getting stronger with each game we play.’

Scotland now look forward to their next International Challenge match against England, this will be the first match to be played at New Wembley on 11 March 2007

Scotland: Fay, Jones (Ferguson 80), Ross (Somerville 80), Kerr, Dieke, Love, Burns (Cook 75), McBride (Brolly 75), Sneddon (Little 70), Fleeting (c), Malone (Hamill 65).
Unused Subs: Johnstone, McDonald and Suzanne Grant.

Cyprus Tournament FULL Results and Reports