Scotland full-back Rachel McLauchlan reckons a hard-fought 1-0 win over Northern Ireland will stand the Dark Blues in good stead going forward.
Caroline Weir’s penalty was the difference in Belfast on a night Stonehaven’s Christy Grimshaw made her international debut.
It was Northern Ireland’s first match since securing a spot at Euro 2022 and nine of the players who took part in that historic match started against the Scots.
Interim boss Stuart McLaren rested some of his top stars — including north-east duo Rachel Corsie and Kim Little — but McLauchlan reckons the battling nature of their win will help in the future.
“It was really good to get back out there and be the with the girls,” said McLauchlan, whose side are back in action against Wales in Llanelli on Tuesday.
“It was kind of a new group, a new squad of players, so it was really good to get the win — that always helps.
“As a team we done well. We knew they had some fast players out wide and I think we done well to stop them.
“We got the goal in the end. It always comes. We were pressing in that second half especially so we’re glad we got the goal.
“To start off with we tried the diamond, experimented with that a bit then went back to 4-3-3.
“With a new group of girls coming in we’re always learning and hopefully everything we learn we can take into Wales.”