A TRIO of West Fife footballers are celebrating after helping take Scotland one step closer towards reaching a major tournament.

Woodmill High School pupil Robyn McCafferty, Dunfermline High's Alicia Yates, and Queen Anne pupil Tegan Bowie were each part of the national under-17 squad that began their bid to qualify for next year's European Championships last week.

They were part of a 20-strong pool selected by head coach Pauline MacDonald for games against Northern Ireland, Montenegro and Italy and, after victories in their opening two matches, the young Scots qualified for the next stage of competition with a game to spare.

The local stars started in all three games and, in the first against the Northern Irish, were captained by Spartans centre back Robyn, 16, who, after Paige McAllister's opener, scored her first international goal as her side began with a convincing 4-1 victory.

Writing on social media afterwards, Robyn said she was "absolutely over the moon" to score her first Scotland goal and described it as "a proud moment".

That took them into a meeting with Montenegro – which, like the opener, was played at the Oriam performance centre near Edinburgh – last Thursday, in which Hibernian's former Bayside Girls keeper Alicia was handed the armband, and she wrote on Twitter that it was "an honour to captain a great bunch of girls".

In a dominant display, she marked the occasion with a clean sheet as Scotland hit another four goals to secure a second three points in Group 10 and progression to the Elite Round, which must be played by the end of March.

They took a 17th-minute lead through Rosie McQuillan and, after Bayley Hutchinson grabbed a first-half double, McQuillan completed her brace four minutes after the break to complete an impressive success that could have been greater if not for some excellent stops by Montenegro stopper Svetlana Milicic.

On Sunday, Scotland took on Italy in their final game of the section, played at Spartans' Ainslie Park, but fell short in their bid to finish top of the standings as they were beaten 4-0.

Scotland, though, will be in next month's Elite Round draw, which features the 11 group winners and runners-up, the four best third-placed teams, and two teams that qualify directly.

They will be drawn into seven groups of four, and each group winner will progress to the finals in Sweden next summer.