HOME team City Beach beat Scotland 13-2 in a physical encounter at Challenge Stadium on Tuesday.

Two goals in the final quarter from Cathy Burns prevented City Beach keeping a clean sheet. Scotland had threatened the home side's goal on a number of occasions with only the post preventing Caroline Connor, Gael Logan and Julia MacKay from scoring.

Earlier, both teams kept possession of the ball to create scoring opportunities. City took the lead with a fast break and Ali Hadley finished strongly. Hadley is the eldest of six sisters who all play for City Beach. Zoë, a former Junior International, missed the match through an ankle injury and Gemma is in Canberra vying for selection for the Australian National Team.

Lynne Baird put in another strong performance.

City Beach then extended their lead in the dying moments of the opening period when Sam Souter was excluded. Beach took full advantage of the extra man, scoring with a strong left arm shot from the right wing.

Lynne Baird saved early in the second quarter only for a Beach player to react first to score. Beach then scored a quick man-up when Scotland's Centre Defender Jillian Connor was excluded.

Lucy MacGregor's steal when Beach were through three-on-two and a block from Burns prevented certain goals, but City Beach began to pull away. They broke down the Scotland drop defence, and counter-attacked well to score three further goals in the second period.

Scotland continued to keep possession of the ball for the allocated 30 seconds. However, they lacked the cutting edge and awareness to shoot or dump the ball. Beach took advantage by breaking fast to score on the counter.

Then Burns scored two fabulous goals. The first was when three seconds were remaining of a man-up. MacGregor passed the ball to Burns whose first-time shot went straight into the top corner. She then scored a replica of that shot from the right-hand side of the goal. Both Burns' efforts were top-class and not even City Beach's first-half Goalkeeper, Emma Knox, would have saved them. Knox was the Australian 'keeper at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Scotland Coach Theo Bampouras was disappointed with his team's display. Bampouras said:
"It was not as good as yesterday's second-half."
"They scored from counters, centre-forward and man-up."

Bampouras added that his team need to show more composure in the pool, "We need to focus more."
Scotland have a rest day on Wednesday and play Dolphins on Thursday in their final warm-up match before the Commonwealth Water Polo Championships, which start on Sunday.

SCOTLAND: 1. Lynne Baird, 3. Fiona Greer, 4. Julia MacKay, 5. Cathy Burns (2 goals), 6. Jillian Connor, 7. Caroline Connor, 8. Gael Logan, 9. Katie Matthews, 10. Lucy MacGregor, 11. Susan Johnstone, 12. Lynn Ruddock, 13. Sam Souter

FINAL Scotland 2, City Beach 13 (0-2, 0-8, 0-10, 2-13)

Julia MacKay takes an excellent shot on goal. Spectators will be screened for the official event.