DEREK FORSYTH, the Scotland men`s hockey coach, and his players will today begin what he hopes is the road to Europe's top flight.
But the fact his team face Spain, ranked 16 places above them, is far from his only concern.
Sportscotland`s recent policy shift announcement in favour of team sports seems to have eluded Forsyth`s charges as the men`s hockey budget has in fact been substantially cut since the Commonwealth Games. To compound matters further they have also recently been informed that they are to lose all services from the institute immediately following their Euro campaign.
Scotland are building up to the European Nations Championships 11 in Prague this summer and even if they can build up a head of steam, the future is far from certain.
"Unfortunately we are not one of the teams that are to benefit financially in the recent announcement, but despite the challenges faced due to these imposed cuts we'll be doing everything possible in our preparation to achieve our promotion goals " said Forsyth. "We hope that these fixtures will allow us the best possible preparation for success in the Europeans,"
As well as the Spanish matches, the Scots will play Wales, Czech Republic and finally Poland just before the Championships.
Missing from the squad for Spain will be Commonwealth Games captain Chris Grassick and Gordon McIntyre, both are in the Great Britain training squad striving to gain Olympic qualification. With recent retrials after the Commonwealth Games, injuries to Callum Duke and Gary Cameron along with the unavailability of Dan Coultas and Michael Bremner due to work and university commitments respectively. Forsyth has taken the opportunity to blood some promising youngsters in Spain.
Four youngsters will make their international debut in the games against Spain - Murray Collins (Loughborough University), Gordon Amour (Edinburgh University), Hamish Irmie (Grange) and Gregor Hirst (PSL Clydesdale).
"The addition of young players into the squad against one of the best sides in Europe is a great opportunity for them to challenge for selection to the final team for the European Championships," said Forsyth.
Spain will certainly be formidable opposition for Forsyth`s youngsters, they are entering the final preparations for the World League semi-finals in Buenos Aires next month, a qualifier for the Rio Olympics.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article