GRANGE'S chances of making the European Club Champions Trophy final took a nose-dive when they went down 3-2 to Stroitel Brest from Belarus in their opening pool match.
Grange started the stronger side and took an early lead through Erin Doig, a Cammie Fraser cross popping up in the air and the Australian smashing it into the net. Brest were levelled by the interval through Vitali Zyshchyk who had a tap-in at the back post.
After the break, Rob Barr had his penalty-corner effort charged down but in a counter attack Maksim Satsiuk put Brest 2-1 in front. Grange were now chasing the game and succumbed to another counter-attack goal from Artem Ozerskyi which virtually killed off the contest. Grange had two penalty corners in the final few minutes but neither Barr or Fraser could find the net.
Grange did notch a consolation in the dying seconds at another set piece, teenager Hamish Imrie deflecting a Fraser pass into the net.
"I feel this was a missed opportunity, we started well but then missed the chance to consolidate our position, with a bit more patience we could have secured a win against a side with 10 international players," said Colin Clarke, Grange coach.
A goal with only two minutes to go by Scotland player Nicola Skrastin gave Milne Craig Clydesdale Western a hard-fought 2-1 victory over top Belgian side Dragons in their opening pool match at the women's European Club Champions Challenge 1 tournament in Vienna.
"We played really well in an end-to-end contest, the girls worked hard and could have won more easily if we had taken all our chances," said Elain Macara, Western manager.
Millie Brown found the net for Western in the opening minutes, it was awarded, then mysteriously disallowed by the umpires. Ironically the Dragons took the lead with a penalty corner strike by Linn Poels. But Western were soon back on level terms when a well-worked routine saw Fiona Bruce's shot deflected into the net by Anna-Mae Morton.
Morton had the best chance of the second half, left with a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but this time failed to find the net. The belated winner for the Scots came as a result of a melee in the circle created by Millie Stieger and Skrastin was on hand to force the ball home.
At Glasgow Green, Scotland's Under-21 side went down 2-1 to the Brazilian senior side. Kyle Gladwin scored the only goal for the home side after good work by Wildcats' Rob Harwood.
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