Scotland’s Nicola Docherty stuns Matildas with long-range winner

The Matildas’ seven-game winning streak is overafter a 1-0 defeat by Scotland in London on Friday in a frustrating setback to their World Cup preparations.

On a day when the Australians were at least encouraged to see an impressive return for their full-back Ellie Carpenter after a two-year international absence, Tony Gustavsson’s team were left ruing a series of missed chances as they succumbed for the first time since last September.

An experimental-looking Matildas side hit the woodwork twice through Cortnee Vine and the debutant Clare Hunt but missed the firepower of Sam Kerr who was on the bench and were alarmingly suspect in defence. They could hardly complain about being beaten by a side who are not going to the World Cup.

The Scots, ranked 23 in the world, prevailed over their top-10 opponents with a freakish, looping second-half strike from Nicola Docherty but, spurred by their very own Sam Kerr, they also created enough opportunities to embarrass a rearguard led by Clare Polkinghorne on her 155th appearance.

In front of a holiday crowd of 2,136 at AFC Wimbledon’s Plough Lane stadium in London, Australia clearly missed some of their marquee names with about 600 caps worth of players out injured or being saved on the bench.

Gustavsson left out Kerr, evidently preparing to unleash his star striker for the match against England at Brentford on Tuesday which is the key final overseas outing before the World Cup. Carpenter’s return was a boon, though. She opened up impressively, forging forward as if she had never been away as she got over an hour under her belt before being substituted.

Early on, it was Hayley Raso who really caused problems for the Scottish defence, being brought down just outside the box after