Scotland ‘can’t make excuses’ for Austria defeat, says Kirsty Hanson

After 14 minutes, the Lilli Purtscheller goal went in, and a flat Scotland performance fell even flatter.

To make things worse, they lost Sophie Howard to injury after just 21 minutes. Rangers’ Leah Eddie stepped up in her place to bring the average age of the back four down to just 23 and a half. They held on until half-time with just a one-goal deficit, despite spending much of the first 45 minutes with their backs to the wall.

Scotland improved in the second period and looked capable of salvaging something but Austria regained their hunger and saw out a solid win, without adding to their tally.

The visitors handed first caps to Eilidh Adams, Frey Gregory and Emma Lawton while Amy Muir made a first start.

“We know what it’s like and obviously not much has changed about the starting XI,” Hanson added. “A few new faces, but we’re obviously a whole squad and we helped the young ones coming in, the debuts.

“So, it might take some time, but we can’t obviously use that as an excuse. We know what it’s like. We always put 100% in and we just want to play good football.”