SHELLEY Kerr praised a tremendous performance in Parchal as her players dismantled an Iceland side ranked only two places below them in the FIFA rankings – this Algarve Cup win putting an end to a run of four losing matches.
“The pleasing thing for me was I put the players under pressure before the game,” Kerr said. “I haven't done that before.
“I told them they will need to win a game at the World Cup if we want to get out of the group. They had to treat it as a World Cup game which we need to win.
“We took calculated risks at the right time. We came into the game confident and wanted to play higher up the pitch.
“I thought the front four were excellent. The third goal was a joy to watch as was some of our football. The players passed the test with flying colours.”
Manchester United winger Lizzie Arnot opened her Scotland account with the first and fourth goals, with Erin Cuthbert and Kim Little chipping in for the other two.
Kerr made four changes to the side which had lost to Canada three days earlier – goalkeeper Shannon Lynn, defender Kirsty Smith, midfielder Leanne Crichton and winger Arnot all coming in.
For reasons known only to himself, Iceland head coach Jon Thor Hauksson dropped Valur striker Elin Jensen, who had scored both goals in the La Manga friendly six weeks earlier, to the bench.
Scotland totally dominated the first half, and especially after Arnot put them ahead after 14 minutes.
Kim Little sent a corner from the left to the far post and it was cleared only as far as the Manchester United player inside the box. She sent a low shot past Sonny Thrainsdottir.
The lead was doubled just after the half hour. A minute earlier Erin Cuthbert had failed to beat the Icelandic keeper after being sent clear by Crichton – but she quickly made amends.
It was a goal made at the top of the FA WSL. Arsenal's Little fed Manchester City's Claire Emslie and Chelsea's Cuthbert this time made no mistake from her cut back.
The pattern was much the same in the second half and Little duly made it three after 56 minutes when she scored from the edge of the box.
It looked to be a matter of how many, but Icelandic captain Sara Gunnarsdottir, who was easily their best player, pulled one back unexpectedly a minute later.
Although the next five minutes were difficult as Iceland nearly grabbed a second, the earlier dominance was soon reasserted.
Arnot bundled the ball into the net after 67 minutes and her side could have added two or three more in the closing stages.
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 here