Late Ralph winner earns Scots first victory in New Zealand

SCOTLAND restored some much-needed pride with a hard-fought win over Austria in the World Cup qualifying competition in New Zealand.

The Scots twice came from behind before Mark Ralph clinched a 3-2 victory with just four minutes left on the clock.

However, Russell Garcia's side's chances of qualifying for the World Cup are over, having lost their opening two matches to China and New Zealand, with only one side advancing from the six-team tournament.

But with international ranking points still at stake, Garcia was over the moon to see his side grind out their first points of the competition.

"I was delighted with the mental attitude of the players.  We had to dig deep to come back from 2-1 down with only ten minutes left and finally win the game with a vital corner strike," he said.   

Scotland started brightly with Kenny Bain and Chris Grassick both spurning good opportunities to break the deadlock but it was Austria who took the lead thanks to Peter Proksch's penalty corner.

But the Scots were back on level terms immediately after the half-time interval when Ross Stott smashed home a first-time volley.

Further chances came the way of Garcia's side but Stephen Dick and Bain both missed the target when they should have done better and Michael Korper soon restored Austria's lead.

But in the final ten minutes Bain deflected Michael Christie's effort to restore parity and Ralph settled matters with a fine drag-flick into the roof of the net late on.

Scotland now move into fourth place in the pool, only a point behind Malaysia who lost 4-2 to hosts New Zealand, while China recorded a hat-trick of 2-1 victories as they saw off Wales.