Over the course of eight days, Jane Ross collected her 100th cap, edged ever closer to 50 goals, Emma Mitchell made her 50th cap and Rachel MacLauchlan started for the first time for her country.
21 players were utilised over the course of the Cyprus Cup giving Anna Signeul the opportunity to experiment with her squad before the pressure starts to heat up in the coming months.
In what was an extremely hectic and worthwhile time in Cyprus for Signeul’s team, they won three out of four games and finished fifth out of the 12 competing teams.
They kicked-off the competition with an entertaining match against New Zealand where Erin Cuthbert and Fiona Brown came off the bench to add extra impetuous to attacks, allowing them to run-out 3-2 winners.
Next up, Scotland faced the eventual finalists Korea Republic and despite holding their own throughout, they failed to take two key chances with their opponents proving clinical in front of goal and able to wrap up all three points.
The Koreans lost out to Switzerland 1-0 in the Final, after topping Scotland’s group.
The game of the competition for Scotland arrived on match day three when, as sun set in Nicosia, they delivered a knockout blow to the 2016 Cyprus Cup champions.
Austria defeated New Zealand 3-0 with relative ease but the Scots took them to task right away and goals from Jane Ross, Leanne Ross and Lisa Evans sealed an extremely satisfying win,.
The goal from the latter was one of the strikes of the tournament following an electrifying break from Lizzie Arnot who assisted Evans in delivering a wicked strike into the top corner to seal the 3-1 victory.
The Cyprus Cup finished with a penalty shoot-out against Wales. Frankie Brown was calm under pressure and slotted the winning spot-kick.
Looking back on the competition Anna Signeul sighted positives but also frustration at the injuries sustained.
She said: “We played four different types of games, managed to get a lot of people game time and played some really good football.
“The downside has been the injuries that we picked up along the way. It was unfortunate that Emma Mitchell suffered a hamstring injury during the second week but we will need to wait and see the scan results.
“The competition allowed us to use the squad and it was good to have Rachel MacLauchlan come out and join us as Rachel Corise was out injured for the duration of the camp.
“It’s a big thing to have your first start but she handled it really well I thought.
“The tournament finished on penalties which was a good experience for our girls. Our penalties were very convincing which was a positive ahead of the Euros.”
Scotland’s next match is away to Belgium on Tuesday 11 April
Cyprus Cup 2017 Results
Scotland 3-2 New Zealand, Group B
Wednesday 1 March 2017, A. Papadopoulos, Larnaca
Scorers: Jane Ross, Erin Cuthbert and Kim Little
Scotland 0-2 Korea Republic, Group B
Friday 3 March 2017, GSP Stadium, Nicosia
Scotland 3-1 Austria, Group B
Monday 6 March 2017, Makario Stadium, Nicosia
Scorers: Jane Ross, Leanne Ross and Lisa Evans
Scotland 0-0 Wales, (Scotland win 6-5 on penalties) 5th/6th Placing match
Wednesday 8 March 2017, Tasos Marko, Paralimni