Shelley Kerr’s first brush with both the World Cup and VAR ended in disappointment as her Scotland team lost 2-1 to England in Nice. 

Former player-turned-manager Kerr led Scotland in their historic women’s World Cup debut but found overturning a 2-0 half-time deficit a mountain too steep to climb. 

Phil Neville’s side took the lead after 15 minutes when the VAR pointed out a Nicola Docherty handball in the penalty area and advised referee Jana Adamkovato award a spot kick. 

Nikita Parris dutifully stepped up to ram the ball past Lee Alexander and Ellen White doubled England’s lead just past the half-hour mark, before Claire Emslie gave Scotland a glimmer of hope in the final stages of the match. 

And although Kerr is fully aware of the laws surrounding the video assistant referee she still felt hard done by at the outcome. 

“In the first instance I think it was harsh but obviously there are rules in place but that is what VAR is there to do, help them,” said the 49-year-old. 

“By the letter of the law it is a penalty but I still thought it was harsh. 

“After England scored they were on the ascendancy and they created a few chances and were really dominant after the first ten minutes. 

“If it had been the sole decision and finished 1-0 I might feel a bit worse but I didn’t think we played well - you’ve got to try to adapt your game plan after those decisions and we did lose a bit of momentum. 

“The rules are the rules and we can’t change that.”

Defeat for Scotland, who are currently 17 places below England in FIFA’s ranking system, does not spell the end of their French adventure and positive results in their remaining Group D fixtures against Japan and Argentina could yet see them through to the knockout stages. 

Teams who finish third in their groups can still make it to the next stage of the competition based on their rankings but Kerr is well aware of the challenges they will face when they meet 2011 winners Japan in Rennes. 

“We need to look at the first half and where things went wrong - we are playing at a World Cup so we need to scrutinise that - we weren’t at our best,” said Kerr. 

“The second half I think we performed really well but we need to recover now because that was a tough game and we are going to face a though Japanese team. 

“There was lots of positives in terms of our attacking play in the second half and you have to bear in mind that you can’t always attack when you are playing teams that are higher ranked than you. 

“You need to have a bit of patience and be structured and organised and it will be a different type of game against Japan but lots of positives to take.”

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