England win Home Nations Tournament, Scotland finish third 

Courtesy Scottish FA

Monday, 04 December 2017

Scotland finished third in this year’s Futsal Home Nations Championship after picking up one win, one draw and a loss across the three games.

Gerry McMonagle’s side started the tournament with a 4-1 victory over Northern Ireland with goals from Scott Smith, Kevin Hagan, Ahmed Aloulou and Lee Cameron securing the win.

Next up were last year’s Home Nations victors Wales. They led 3-1 with just a few minutes left on the clock but two last gasp goals from Scotland secured the draw. Captain Scott Mollison scored a double during the match with Kevin Hagan notching the other.

The tournament then went into a straight shoot-out between Scotland and England with the English emerging 5-0 victors.

Reflecting on the tournament, head coach Gerry McMonagle said: “Coming away with four points and finishing third after performing the way we did was pretty disappointing.

“We had chances against England early on and if we scored one of them then it could have been a different story.

“England are one of the top teams and their goalkeeper had three brilliant saves in the opening minutes. It would have unsettled them I think ultimately they were the stronger side.”

Despite the loss against England in the final game, McMonagle took plenty of promise from the Welsh draw.

“If you look back at recent results, we lost to Sweden 13-0 but six weeks ago Wales beat them twice,” he said.

“That puts things in perspective in terms of the direction Scottish futsal is moving in. The fact we drew with them, coming from behind, showed a lot of promise.”

Futsal Home Nations Championship Results

Friday, 1 December

England 3-0 Wales

Scotland 4-1 Northern Ireland

Saturday, 2 December

Northern Ireland 1-5 England

Scotland 3-3 Wales

Sunday, 3 December

Wales 8-0 Northern Ireland

Scotland 0-5 England