{"id":1163539,"date":"2026-08-22T19:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T19:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1163539\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T19:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T19:43:17","slug":"watson-slams-home-as-scotland-edge-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1163539\/","title":{"rendered":"Watson slams home as Scotland edge Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Charlotte Watson latched on to a cross from the right, took one touch, moved her feet into position and fired for goal. The ball thundered into a high point in the net to cue wild celebrations from Scotland\u2019s women\u2019s hockey team.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Dundonian, who was in Great Britain\u2019s Olympic squad in Paris, showed real quality with the exquisite finish after 38min 18sec which made the difference between Scotland and Ireland in a tense tussle in Pool H in the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier, Ellie MacKenzie had deflected the ball home after 5min 10sec following a penalty corner award. Amy Costello had fired for goal and the Surbiton player put her stick in the right place at the right time giving the Ireland goalkeeper no chance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scotland had to hold on through a nervy final session for a narrow 2-1 victory, their first for decades in the World Cup, and now face New Zealand in their final game in the pool on Monday (10am on Channel Four).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Kiwis are raked No 11 in the world and Scotland slipped to No 15 after finishing bottom of Pool B following defeats by Germany, America and Argentina, all now ranked in the world\u2019s top ten.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scotland, however, undoubtedly carried belief and momentum from their impressive performance against Argentina, ranked No 2 in the world. They showed real determination and dug in against one of the world\u2019s leading side in midweek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Against Ireland, Scotland made a fast start, with MacKenzie creating Scotland\u2019s first opportunity driving to the line and winning a penalty corner. That was a signal of what was to come and the Tartan Hearts continued to put the Irish side under pressure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ireland did break through before the half-time break with Emily Kealy netting after 25min 05sec but, overall, the Tartan Hearts enjoyed over 60 per cent of possession during the first half with Ireland on around 38 per cent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A mark of their superiority comes in the official numbers as Scotland also outshot their rivals and recorded more circle penetrations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scotland underlined that superiority and struck early after the restart. Captain Sarah Robertson picked up the ball on the right and fizzed it into the circle. Great Britain teammate Watson made the Irish pay with her slick finish for 2-1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ireland remained a threat, but Scotland were also dangerous and the Irish goalkeeper dived to her right to deflect a ball which looked destined to find the net.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, there were nervy moments for the Tartan fans in the Belfius Hockey Arena in Belgium, and those watching at home on TV, but Scotland held on and MacKenzie, adjudged Player of the Match, said it was an amazing win against a side ranker higher than the Scots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former Mary Erskine School pupil added: \u201cOur tournament started here and now we want to show what Scotland can achieve on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GAME WINNER:<\/strong> Charlotte Watson during training at Peffermill watched by Scotland coach Chris Duncan. Picture <strong>Nigel Duncan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlotte Watson latched on to a cross from the right, took one touch, moved her feet into position&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1163540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[1789,748,4884,712,105902,108041,16,15,1514],"class_list":["post-1163539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-belgium","tag-britain","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-scottish-hockey","tag-tartan-hearts","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117140875475979688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1163540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}