GORDON SHEPHERD, Scotland's coach, had targeted the match against Italy as crucial to his side's survival in the European Nations Championships and his charges responded with a 3-1 win in the pouring rain in London yesterday.

Shepherd's aspirations of a sixth-place finish looked a forlorn hope when the Italians totally dominated the first half, but fortunately the scoresheet remained blank at the interval. The key to the victory was a blistering 10-minute spell after the interval when the Italians were drowned by three penalty-corner goals from captain Leigh Fawcett, Becky Merchant on her 100th cap and Wildcats' Kareena Marshall.

The Scots now take the three points over into a relegation pool competition with games against either Spain or Belgium and Poland to come in the next few days.

The statistics showed that the Italians had 90 per cent of the possession in the opening quarter leaving the Scots chasing shadows. But crucially Italy failed to take advantage of four penalty corners during that period. The first three were blocked by Marshall, Aileen Davis and goalkeeper Gibson while the final effort went wide.

The Scots at last created some scoring opportunities in the second quarter but Nikki Lloyd and Emily Maguire both failed to really trouble Martina Chirico in the Italian goal.

Shepherd's words of encouragement to his charges are probably unprintable but his underachievers suddenly burst into action. In only 51 seconds and against the run of play, Nikki Kidd's drag flick at a penalty corner was blocked by the goalkeeper, Vikki Bunce had a try at the rebound but it was left to a kneeling Fawcett to roll the ball home.

The Scots doubled their advantage at their eighth set-piece of the quarter, a goalmouth scramble came from Emily Maguire's shot with Merchant on hand to force the ball over the line off a defender's foot.

Chiara Tiddi pulled one back for the Italians, but Shepherd's charges were not to be denied, a penalty-corner shot by Davis was brilliantly deflected past the stranded goalkeeper by Marshall.

The Scots calmly played out the final quarter despite a sin-bin visit by Nikki Skrastin to take the valuable three points.

"The girls were tentative in the first half, at the interval I told them they needed to step it up and get some self belief if they wanted to get the required result, and that`s exactly what they did," said a delighted Shepherd.