Scotland manager Pedro Martinez Losa claimed that there was a “manipulated narrative” around his side as Sophie Howard gave the under-pressure Spaniard his first competitive win in 18 months.
The Spaniard had been irked at questions that scrutinised the winless record that stretched back to October 2022 on the eve of this European Championship qualifier. The win takes Scotland level on points with Serbia in Group B2 as they claimed a first competitive victory in nine games.
When asked about the performance, the Spaniard said: “Finally we won a competitive game, isn’t it? Not only did we win a competitive game, we had 70-30 possession, we have conceded one goal in the last four games, even though friendlies don’t count for some journalists.
“We are happy – four points is a good return for what we want from qualification. It was a difficult opponent, on the ball especially.
“You can see the players give everything, the level of training is outstanding. We have seven players who can be in the line-up who are not here but even without that we are giving the team character and consistency not to concede goals.”
When pressed on his comments about the narrative, Martinez Losa said: “We have won nine games since that day and lost five, two against the number two in the world and two against the number seven in the world.”
Howard’s header after Erin Cuthbert’s free-kick just after the hour mark broke up a turgid performance and eased the pressure around the national team.
They are not back in action now until the end of May when they play a double header against Israel.
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