Martha Thomas urges Scotland to use ‘momentum’ from England showing

Scotland forward Martha Thomas has urged her team-mates to build on their encouraging performance in their Nations League opener against England when they take on Belgium at Hampden Park on Tuesday.

England held on to secure a 2-1 win at the Stadium of Light on Friday thanks to goals from Lucy Bronze and Lauren Hemp.

Kirsty Hanson pulled one back for Scotland just before half-time, but the visitors were unable to level despite going close through Hanson and Christy Grimshaw.

Belgium are set to provide another test, but Thomas feels Scotland have momentum despite coming up short against the Lionesses.

“I think as a squad we’re proud of the way we played, competing against a team who won the Euros and made it to a World Cup final,” the Tottenham forward told a press conference.

“But then on the other side we’re a bit disappointed not to get anything from the game. I think we probably deserved a draw. If some decisions went our way it could’ve been a different game.

“Like I’ve said, we’ve competed against the best and we’re going to build on that, we know we can do that, so we’re going to use that momentum going into Belgium.

“Although we’re disappointed we didn’t get points, we’re pleased with our performance and how we competed.

“We’ve looked at Belgium and obviously they’ve had another good result, so they’ll have some momentum.

“Despite us not getting the result, I think we can have momentum regardless of that so we’re looking forward to it.”

With no VAR for the England game, Scotland had a penalty shout waved away in the first half after Thomas appeared to be shoved by defender Millie Bright.

“I think I was more annoyed when I watched it back,” Thomas said,

“There’s a lot of question marks about that, but it is what it is. It would’ve been nice to have VAR in the game, if we can get some consistency – with VAR there I don’t think challenges like that are happening.

“I had a bit of discomfort (about it) after, but it is what it is, disappointed, but it’s the way football goes sometimes.”

Scotland’s focus now turns to Belgium, who beat the Netherlands 2-1 in their opening game, and manager Pedro Martinez Losa is hopeful his side can pick up points against their closest-ranked rivals, who are 18th in the world.

“It’s probably the closest rival that we’d like to get the points, especially at home,” Martinez Losa told a press conference.

“But I think at this moment in time in our analysis we can be really stable in our performances and we can control our performances.

“We can obviously perform or get points against the Netherlands and England, we really believe that.

“At the moment we are all talking good points, but we have zero points and that’s the other part of the story.”