Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scotland Women proved they can compete with top nations, says defender Rachel McLauchlan

"It's an exciting time and I think you can see the progression in the team," said McLauchlan after an encouraging Scottish display in Sunderland.

Scotland's Rachel McLauchlan battles with England's Ella Toone at the Stadium of Light.
Scotland's Rachel McLauchlan battles with England's Ella Toone at the Stadium of Light. Image: Shutterstock.

Rachel McLauchlan believes Scotland Women proved they can compete with the top teams in their Uefa Nations League defeat to England.

In their Nations League opener at the Stadium of Light, Scotland were beaten 2-1 by the reigning European champions and last month’s World Cup finalists.

Lucy Bronze and Lauren Hemp put England 2-0 up by the 45th minute, but Scotland found themselves back in the game when Kirsty Hanson pulled a goal back with the last kick of the first-half.

Scotland battled to try to pull level, with a number of chances in the second half – including a Kirsty Hanson effort which hit the crossbar, but did not find an equaliser.

McLauchlan, who hails from Avoch on the Black Isle, believes an encouraging display against the Lionesses was a reflection of the recent strides Scotland have made.

The defender said: “We showed that we can compete with teams like that and we have to take confidence from that for the games coming up.

“That’s why we’re disappointed after that performance: where we gave it everything and created chances, but unfortunately they just didn’t go into the net.”

Scotland Women's starting XI against England.
Scotland’s starting XI for the Nations League match against England. Image: PA.

McLauchlan added: “Even before the game we were all really looking forward to playing England and putting ourselves up to the test, and now that game is over we’ve shown we can compete with that.

“So, it’s an exciting time and I think you can see the progression within the team. We want to just keep pushing forward and that’s exactly what we will be looking to do.”

Scotland were well-supported by a travelling Tartan Army in Sunderland and McLauchlan hopes the team can give the fans something to celebrate when they host Belgium at Hampden on Tuesday.

Belgium started their Nations League campaign with an impressive 2-1 win over the Netherlands on Friday night.

McLauchlan said: “We got a crowd (in Sunderland) and you could certainly hear them.

“It helped us so much on the pitch. You had a full crowd of English fans, but you could still hear the Scottish ones and that was really good.

“Hopefully, we can get them at Hampden on Tuesday as well to push us on and we will put everything into our performance for that one as well.”

Conversation