Wales

As part of their final preparations for the forthcoming European Nations tournament Wales Women travelled to Spain to play three matches against that country’s U-21 squad.

In the first game Wales appeared very subdued which resulted in a very poor performance and although Ria Male played exceptionally well in the second half, Wales could not create any clear cut chances and struggled to maintain possession. The home team’s greater desire showed through and it was no surprise that Wales conceded three goals to give the home team an early lead in the series.

The second match proved that Wales had recovered from the previous days disappointment and although conceding a goal after only 4 minutes, fought back to equalise through a Tina Evans penalty corner (her first for Wales). Spain again took the lead but early in the second half Beth Fisher scored her third goal in four games to claw her team back into the match following another penalty corner goal. Unfortunately some missed defensive tackles resulted in Spain scoring the winning goal shortly before the end.

In the final match Wales again conceded an early goal when their defence failed to deal with an overhead ball into the circle. Despite Sarah Thomas coming close after a fine run from Carys Hopkins, Wales continued to have trouble in clearing the ball and after being caught in possession the second goal was conceded after 31 minutes. Turning round two goals behind, Sarah Ashworth returned to the field after having received a suspension and immediately pulled one goal back from a penalty corner. Spain rallied and scored their own penalty corner and despite Wales throwing everything into attack could not break the defence, despite hitting the post.

Manager Andy Ible said “it proved to be very interesting seeing the players in different positions and formations and despite the three defeats, we have learned a lot from the tour”

Assistant Coach Mark Hopkins added “we now have all the jigsaw pieces in place and whilst the results were disappointing it proved to be an excellent opportunity for players to fulfil their potential. We are now much more optimistic for the European Nations.”

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