Two more medals completed a magnificent Commonwealth Games for Scotland's judo players as Mandy Costello and Stephanie Hart battled their way to bronze yesterday in Manchester's G-Mex Centre.

However, the team's efforts ended in rather sad fashion when Lindsay Sorrell, the youngest member at 18, just missed out on a medal when narrowly beaten by Foguin Okodombe of Cameroon in the under 78kg class.

Head coach Nigel Donohue consequently ended the competition same way as he had spent so much of it, consoling one of his players, as he led the distraught teenager out of the arena, but overall he was highly satisfied.

''I targeted six medals before the competition began and we've won 10,'' he noted.

Placed in the context of Scotland's overall medal haul of 12 from the entire 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur, that represented a quite remarkable return from a total of 14 team members.

Donohue was particularly upset for John Buchanan, who he described as a world class fighter who had simply had ''a bad day at the office'' on the wrong day on Tuesday, and for Sorrell, who he reckons has the potential to be a future Olympian.

Costello also looked upset as she accepted her medal, even though she had recovered bravely from losing a fierce semi-final bout to Samantha Lowe of England in the 70 kg category to overcome Marianne Sharpe of Wales in the play off for bronze.

Hart, meanwhile, finished third after a round robin battle with four other fighters in the over 78 kg category.

They had hoped to finish the competition with more gold, but their efforts, led by Graeme Randall's victory in the 81 kg class on Wednesday should have given the sport a major lift north of the border according to the team's Lancastrian coach.

''I think this should give Scottish judo a lot of confidence,'' Donohue said. ''It is the first time we have put together a planned programme for a Scottish team and the performances have justified that. What we have done here has made it clear that Scottish judo is worth investing in.''

On the face of it, since this was a relatively rare opportunity for the Scots to compete as a team, it would seem that there could now be a problem in terms of maintaining the sense of team spirit generated in the build-up to the games and during the competition itself.

As Donohue pointed out, however, lack of opportunity to compete as Scotland should not be affect that collective sense of purpose, because: ''We are a team within a team when we take part in British competitions.''