Not a victory but not a disgrace was the only way that Scotland could look upon last night's 1-0 defeat to The Netherlands at Hampden.
It was a sobering night for Scotland in Holland on Friday night as they succumbed to a hefty 4-0 defeat that could well have been more. This was better but it did, inevitably, continue to shine a light on the disparity between the teams with the Dutch in firm control of this game, particularly in the second period.
The result makes difficult reading for Scotland, though; just one point from their opening four Nations League games and rooted to the bottom of Group A1. The Netherlands now go top.
Martinez Losa responded with a rejig of personnel and system, key among which was the return of Erin Cuthbert. There was also a debut for Sandy MacIver following her decision to switch allegiance from England to Scotland with Lee Gibson forced to settle for a place on the bench.
Rachel Corsie was pushed into a defensive midfield slot as Scotland looked to ensure they would not be as overrun as they were in Friday night.
Lisa Evans was also back into after she collected her 100th cap in Holland after coming off the bench with Martinez Losa going for an experienced spine.
It served Scotland well in an opening half where they showed far more promise than they did against this summer’s World Cup quarter-finalists than they had for the 90 minutes on Friday night.
Cuthbert was at the heart of much of that good work as she hustled and harried in the middle of the park as she sought to limit the forward forays of the Dutch.
Notable, too, was MacIver who prevented the visitors from opening the scoring after Sherida Spitse had whipped in a dangerous free-kick that she had palmed onto the underside of the crossbar.
Scotland were not without a few notable moments of their own. Fiona Brown had what looked like a fairly strong shout for a penalty after she felt her cross had come off the arm of Caitlin Dijkstra, although Czech referee Jana Adamkova was having none of it.
With no VAR in operation, there was no means of checking it, much to the disappointment of Scotland.
It was a fairly dull opening half, not that Scotland cared too much after the hell they went through on Friday night.
If they were quietly satisfied with their first-half showing they found themselves up against it as The Netherlands emerged from the interval with a keener sense of energy and conviction as they looked to unlock the Scotland defence.
Brugts delivered a curling ball that Roord got on the end of but somehow she contrived to steer her effort wide of the target as the crowd of just over 5000 inside Hampden braced themselves for the net to bulge.
It came though just before the hour mark when she was allowed ample time and space to drift inside befiore unleashing an effort past MacIvor.
When Scotland did succeed in getting forward they struggle to show any real menace in the final third with no-one able to hold the ball up or have the quality to get in behind the Dutch.
Cuthbert lasted until just after the hour mark given her lack of game time because of injury with Scotland’s midfield notably weakened when she headed off the pitch.
By that stage and the Dutch comfortable in protecting their lead Scotland found it difficult to find any kind of rhythm.
They came close to doubling their advantage when Lineth Beerensteyn, who netted twice on Friday night, whacked an effort off the post as they took firm control.
Scotland made changes as they tried to salvage something but there was no real urgency in the final third.
There might have been late reprieve when Sophie Howard produced a late diving save from Daphne van Domselaar - Scotland’s first real chance of note across the entirety of the 90 minutes.
