CWG women\’s hockey: Scots, Welsh celebrate first wins

NEW DELHI - Scotland and Wales celebrated as though they had won the gold medal — but it were, in fact, just their first wins in the womens hockey competition at the Commonwealth Games here Thursday.

The Scots slammed Trinidad and Tobago 6-1, yet their coach Gordon Shepherd was livid, while Wales slipped past an inconsistent Malaysia 2-1, leading to questions on umpiring standards in the tournament.

Scotland moved to four points in pool \’A\’ after three outings, but looked far from impressive against the Caribbean champions who exposed the rival defence with a last minute goal, but could not avert their third straight defeat.

It was a terrible performance. I am not at all happy, fumed Shepherd. \”There were too many wrong passes, he said.

The age-old issue of umpiring flared up when coaches of both Malaysia and Wales thought the supervision could have been better, and that it impacted the quality of play.

We were prepared for a tough match and some of our players took hits. I wouldnt like to comment on umpiring, but I guess thats the way the Malaysians play, said Wale\’s head coach Joanna Nightingale referring to a couple of injuries to her players during close tackles.

The Malaysian coach Yahya Atan was more forthright in his comments and held the umpiring decisions as responsible for his teams defeat.

The umpiring was very bad and I am upset, said Atan in an oblique reference to the yellow card suspension of Norazlin Sumantri in the 67th minute following a strong challenge on a Welsh player.

We Malaysians are small made and so where is the question of being physical? But apart from umpiring, I would say that we were not up to the mark and also missed chances, he said.