Ireland 0 Scotland 0
Graham Shaw was left frustrated as his Irish women's side could not break down a stubborn Scotland defence, leading to an ultimately deflating scoreless draw in their second European Championships pool game in Amsterdam on Sunday.
It means only a win over Germany on Tuesday and a favour from elsewhere will keep the semi-final shot alive or else the relegation pool looms once again.
“We were very dominant,” Shaw said of the tie. “The amount of circle penetrations, the opportunities we created, we had enough attacks.
“To win games, we have to put the ball in the goal and we lacked a bit of quality and composure in the final third. It just wasn’t enough.”
He will look back most painfully on Deirdre Duke's effort in the fourth minute, one which skipped inches wide off goalkeeper Amy Gibson's foot, and a Katie Mullan opening in the closing two minutes.
In between five penalty corners went awry while numerous turnovers forced by Duke and Anna O'Flanagan were not transformed into tangible returns.
The chances that did come would not fall while Scotland left the field with smiles all around, getting a draw despite ending with no shots of note over the hour.
It followed a low-key 4-1 loss to Olympic gold medallists England on Saturday in the opening tie.
Midfielder Nicci Daly said the two performances were not indicative of an otherwise fruitful summer to date.
“We are disappointed because we feel like we’ve come a long way in 2017, showcasing what we are about in the last few months.
“We have been playing and matching teams at a higher level, drawing and beating Germany in the last month so we can definitely do it on Tuesday.”
IRELAND: G O'Flanagan, Y O'Byrne, K Mullan, S McCay, L Tice, R Upton, C Watkins, N Daly, A O'Flanagan, Z Wilson, D Duke. Subs: E Beatty, G Pinder, S Loughran, H Matthews, A Meeke, C Cassin.
SCOTLAND: A Gibson, B Ward, A Costello, K Robertson, S Robertson, K Cuthbert, S Jamieson, M Brown, K Holmes, F Burnet, R Condie. Subs: M Drummond, C Watson, N Lloyd, R Collins, A Howie, N Cochrane, A Brodie.
Umpires: A Unka (NZ), K Alves (Fra).
