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Wales win Four Nations Tournament
Wales defeated Ireland 4-1 this afternoon and Scotland lost 3-1 to England, so Wales take the tournament.
Three English goals in five minutes ensured that Wales were crowned Four Nations champions for the second time in three seasons as the Scotland failed to put the perfect finish on what had been a very well received tournament.
An edited report on the Welsh game from Highlandleague.net below:
The penultimate match of this highly successful Four Nations tournament kicked off in perfect sunshine at Harlaw Park, Inverurie with Wales and Ireland both knowing a win would put the pressure on the Scots later this afternoon.
However although the Welsh had several chances the scores were level 0-0 at half time.
Two minutes after the kick off the complection of the game, and the group for that matter, changed with a wonder goal from left back Hugh Davy. A John Lester corner for the Irish was headed clear but Davy was first to react and from all of 30 yards he fired the ball into the postage stamp corner of the net with the outside of his left foot.
The Welsh almost equalised eight minutes later Ryan Green swung a great ball in for Nathan Davies, but his effort was well saved by Neil Gallagher. It didn't take the Welsh long to get back into the game though and with an hour on the clock sub Graham Evans scored with his first touch.
A free kick from out on the right thirty yards form goals was swung in by Ben Davies and Evans rose to glance it into top corner.
The Welsh were coming into their own now with Ben Davies running the show in the centre of the park. They went on to take the lead in the 67th minute when a low cross from Ryan Green was sidefooted home by Chris Todd at the back post.
Things were to get better for the Welsh and worse for the Scots only minutes later when Chris Giles made it three nil to Wales from close range after another piece of wizardry by the bleached blond Davies.
With ten minutes remaining the Welsh added a fourth to put the pressure really on the Scots when Graham Evans shot came back off the post and was passed into the back of the net by Chris Giles.
Full Time: Wales 4 Ireland 1
And here is an edited report on the England game:
Scotland got off the perfect start when, after 12 minutes the direct running of Stuart McKay won the home side a penalty. Good play by Steve Dolan and Ian Murray released the Locos forward and having ran past the hefty Matt Redmile and he skipped beyond Jake Sedgemore who promptly brought him down.
Mike Stephen stepped up and fire the ball left footed away to the keepers left and into the corner of the net.
It really should have been two nil when Mike Stephen's ball across the box, which was only two yards from goal, was flicked away by Stuart McKay by number four Sedgemore.
The Scots were dealt a blow when the referee levelled up the penalty count when Steve Guinan's shot of the turn hit Bryan Dlugonski on the hand as he slid in and to the surprise of everyone the Irish official pointed to the spot.
Guinan stood up and placed it to the keepers left to level the scores. There was more bad news a minute later when England took the lead through Glenn Southam. A long ball through was only partially cleared by Ross Archibald and the Dagenham and Redbridge midfielder flicked it over the defender then finished with aplomb.
The English were flowing and their confidence was clearly up for the first time in the tournament. Liam Hatch showed they have plenty of quality in their side when he got the ball at the touchline, turned back onto his right foot and curled it beyond Andy Shearer in to the bottom corner to cap a remarkable turn around.
Barrie Stephen put a little bit of life back into the crowd with a neat turn past two players and then a 25 yard left foot effort that flew about a yard over the bar.
Once again Scotland went within inches of pulling one back when Bryan Dlugonski's flick from Mike Stephen's corner beat the keeper but was cleared off the line by Glenn Southam who was positioned on the far post.
A minute before the break Barrie Stephen picked the ball up 10 yards inside his own half and ran at the English defence. From thirty yards he let fly with a rocket that cannoned off the base of the post.
A minute into the second half the tournament's second red card saw Glenn Southam sent off after he tangled with Ian Murray right in front of the stand and having appeared to striker Murray in the face made the short walk to the dressing room.
Andy Shearer made two fantastic saves with quarter of an hour remaining to spectacularly thwart Amos Forewa and then Matt Redmile.
Ross Archibald warmed the hands of Matt Baker with a speculative effort from all of 30 yards and then Iain Thomson curled one that the keeper comfortable held late on but the Scots never really looked likely to turn things around as the game slowly petered out.
Full Time: Scotland 1 England 3