Scotland Women 7 Finland Women 2

Last updated : 22 September 2011 By Ed_ScottishFitba

Scotland kicked off the christening of their new home of Tynecastle with a fine 7-2 win over Finland in the second half of the pre-EURO2013 qualifiers double header. A crowd of 649 were there to back the women all through the game and make them feel right at home in Edinburgh. Goals from Hayley Lauder, Jennifer Beattie (two), Jane Ross (another two), Rachael Corsie and and OG from Katri Nokso-Koivisto were the bare statistics for Scotland which does not really tell the tale of a game they totally dominated. Finland's goals came from an OG from Rhonda Jones and a late consolation in their own right from Marianna Tolvanen  but they did not take anything away from an outstanding performance from Scotland. It shows just how things have progressed for Scotland's women that national coach Anna Signeul was not over the moon with the result. She wants to see the performance and result like tonight's in games when the pressure is on. The result was adequate revenge for the 1-0 reverse over in Finland on Sunday but the two games were friendlies ahead of the EURO2013 opening game against  Israel next month. 

Hayley Lauder (out of shot) opens the scoring in second minute
 
On Sunday Scotland failed to counter the long ball game employed by the Finns which did not allow them to make best use of their superior footballing skills throughout the side. Tonight Scotland made good use of the flanks and the height and athleticism of Beattie and Ross who both scored with their heads as one of their two goals. Scotland got off to the best of starts with a nerve settling goal in the second minute. Lauder was the sharpest to respond to the loose ball parried by Tinja-Riikka Korpela from a stinging Ross shot and the ball was in the net in an instant. 14 minutes later was a time that Jones will want to forget when she sent a pass-back from 25 metres out with rather too much on it to the left of Gemma Fay's goal. The Celtic FC keeper and Scotland captain was obviously not expecting the ball to be heading goal-wards and the scramble back was in vain. This prompted another prowl of the technical area by Signeul as she encouraged her charges to get back on the front foot. Beattie was on hand or rather head to restore the home advantage as she headed home a cross from Lauder. It seems as if the scorers were lining up to be providers to each other as well. In the 38 minute we saw what was perhaps the goal of the night as Jane Ross leapt on the run to head the ball past the now-despairing Korpela whose flailing hands were not even in time to catch the shadow of the ball as it hit the net. The next goal was always going to come from Scotland and it was Beattie again this time ending a fine move involving Jane Ross and Rachael Small. Beattie was driving in on the keeper and dummied her shot before slipping the ball past Korpela to make it 4-1 ahead of half-time.

Korpela had to be on her toes as this shot cannoned off the bar
 
The rain welcomed the second half to add to the chill of the wind. However, Scotland's goal threat was still red hot and it was not long before another goal was being hailed. This time Corsie looped the ball over Korpela despairing hands after she was caught too far out from the goal-line. The positioning of the visiting keeper was called into question soon after when a mis-placed pass across the defence went straight to Jane Ross who lobbed the keeper to make it 6-1. While it appears that Scotland were scoring with ease it has to be said that they would not have racked up so many without sterling work from Ifeoma Dieke, Megan Sneddon, Leanne Ross and Kim Little in the middle of the park. Sneddon especially was like a terrier when the Finns had the ball and forced them to lose possession or won the ball in firm but fair tackles. Dieke made an uncharacteristic mistake when she and Tolvanen were running side-by-side towards the home goal. As Fay moved forward to clear the ball or hoped Dieke would put the ball out for a corner, the defender decided to take the ball inside right into the stride of Tolvanen who stroked the ball home to make it 6-2. The drama was not complete and the OGs were balanced out when the unfortunate Nokso-Koivisto sent a pass-back to her 'keeper which evaded her and slowly but ever so surely crept in at the left hand post. A 7-2 win is always welcome and the moral boost it provides will help when the women are on their way to Israel who play a rather different game. The will need patience to breakdown a well-drilled defensive team but should not be afraid of anybody if they maintain the form shown tonight.
 
Scotland: Fay, Jones, Beattie, Dieke, Ross (L), Little, Sneddon, Ross (J), Corsie, Small, Lauder
Subs: Lynn, Marshall, Murray, Fleeting, Grant, Brown, Docherty, Murray
 
Finland: Korpela, Saari, Hyyrynen, Kukkonen, Nokso-Koivisto, Tolvanen, Rantanen, Westerlund, Lyytikainen, Sallistom, Sjolund
Subs: Kankaanpaa, Salmen, Nordlund, Talonen, Puranen, Sainio