Lee returns from her championship dream battered and bruised

Oct 8 2008 by Paul Thomson, East Kilbride News

LAST week was a bad week for Lee Alexander. The 17-year-old Scotland goalkeeper returned from the under-19 European Championship qualifiers a battered soul.

She had gone into the Championship qualifiers in Slovenia full of hope and optimism, but in the opening match she dislocated her thumb in a freak accident which will keep her on the sidelines until Christmas.

And to make matters worse, she could only look on as the national girls side went on to ship six goals in three matches, leaving them rock bottom of the group table and completely out of the running for the July finals in Belarus.

The under-19s got off to the worst possible start when they lost 1-0 to hosts Slovenia – a team they were expected to beat – and played out a disappointing 0-0 draw with Slovakia to compound their woes.

But then, things went from bad to worse as Scotland faced up to the Auld Enemy only to be the victims of a 5-2 thrashing. The Scots tried new tactics and changes in personnel, but to no avail.

And by that time, Lee was watching from the sidelines following her injury in the Slovenia match.

She explained: “In the 27th minute of the match, a cross came in and I shouted for the ball, but one of my defenders flicked the ball with her head and the power of that just pushed my thumb right back. I knew I had to stop when it happened, there was nothing I could do and it was just one of these freak things.

“I’m hoping to be back around Christmas now, but hopefully before that, and I’ll just have to keep my fitness up until I can get back into goalkeeper training again.

“It was a terrible weekend for me, but these things happen.”

However, it’s not the first time Lee has found herself out of action to injury.

In March, the Glasgow City Ladies player was playing in a tournament for the national team in France when a similar incident saw her injure her finger. And two years ago, she broke her leg while on international duty.

Scotland’s failure to qualify will be a bitter pill for Lee to swallow after watching the women’s A squad put in some great performances to reach the play-offs for their respective championship.

Lee admitted there was an overwhelming sense of disappointment that her team didn’t perform to their potential.

The Calderglen High School pupil said: “Everyone is absolutely devastated and we can’t believe we didn’t qualify.

“We didn’t play well at all against Slovenia, although I think we were given some misleading information about them because we watched videos of them and they didn’t look that good.

“But when they came out, there were actually a pretty good side and we were probably over confident going into the game.

“Their goal shocked us and we didn’t recover from it.”

And Lee admitted she wasn’t too impressed with her successor in goal. “In the England game, the keeper had a bit of a howler too be honest, so it wasn’t good.

“We were 3-0 down in 15 minutes, but we battled back to 3-1 and we didn’t give up. I don’t want to say too much, but the keeper wasn't great.

“Take nothing away from England though, they’re a good side and their manager is a coach at Everton Ladies so they’ve got a lot of experience there and they are far ahead of us.”

Last week’s defeat marks the end of the international scene for Scotland until February now, but Lee believes the key to the under-19s becoming more successful is for the squad to meet up more often.

She said: “We’ve got a couple of games to look forward to in February, but I think if we really want to improve we need to meet up more as a team.

“When you look at all the other teams at the tournament, they all knew each other well and how each other played.

“I don’t think we’ve really gelled yet as a team and we could do with getting some more meetings just to get more familiar with each other’s game.”

With Lee out injured she will also miss crucial league games for her club, with Glasgow City Ladies second division side set to face close rivals Troon, Linwood Rangers and Maryhill all in the next few weeks.

City currently sit proudly at the top of their league on goal difference from Linwood and Maryhill after winning their opening three matches.

Lee added: “It’s always disappointing when you can’t play. We are doing well at the moment and we’ve got a great team at City, but I’ll just have to wait now and hopefully I can get my place back in the team when I return.”