SHELLEY Kerr says she doesn't feel apprehensive about First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attending Scotland's opening World Cup match against England in Nice, despite dreadful results on the previous two occasions the team patron attended.
The pair frequently swap notes and both were at Edinburgh Castle yesterday afternoon for the Scottish leg of the World Cup trophy tour. It has now been to 20 of the 24 countries which will be hoping to take it home for four years after the final in Lyon on July 7.
Scotland's first-ever game in the tournament will be the Group D opener against England a month earlier. It is a repeat of the first Euro 2017 group game between the sides which Scotland lost 6-0 with the First Minister in the stands. She had previously watched a 4-0 defeat to Iceland at the Falkirk Stadium in a Euro 2017 qualifier.
Both, however, were under former head coach Anna Signeul and Kerr is confident there will be no repeat when a stronger and better-organised Scotland side take on the Old Enemy.
“I am comfortable with the First Minister being our patron, and coming to the England game,” the Scotland head coach laughed. “She takes an active role, she spends a lot of time making sure she is up to speed with things.
“I know she hasn’t got a good track record when she has been attending games but there is absolutely no trepidation. She's a huge advocate of what we are doing with the women's game and without her support we wouldn't have been able to prepare the home based players as well as we have.”
Kerr has returned from a trip to Rennes and Paris, where Scotland play their other group games against Japan and Argentina. She visited the facilities at Nice shortly after the World Cup draw at the end of last year.
“Everything was covered, and the good thing was from a travel and logistical point of view we were able to do the journeys the way we will at the World Cup,” she said. “You can look at brochures and everything else, but nothing beats doing a recce yourself. It's not that I don't trust anyone, it was just great for me to see all three venues.”
Kerr is expected to name her 23-player tournament squad in the middle of next month, ahead of the send-off game against Jamaica at Hampden on May 28.
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