THE truism that statistics don't tell the whole story will again be confirmed when Scotland play the Netherlands in a friendly at the Toni Macaroni Arena in Livingston this evening.

The sides have met five times in the last three-and-a-half years, with Scotland winning three times and the visitors twice. Yet what appears to be a success story against a higher ranked nation masks the fact that the Euro 2017 hosts won the two that really mattered.

They were played within a week of each other in October 2014, with the prize for the winner being the last European place at the 2015 World Cup in Canada. Scotland lost the first leg 2-1 at Tynecastle and then the return 2-0 in Rotterdam - but the underwhelming nature of the performances was worse than the aggregate scoreline suggested.

“Losing these two games doesn't sit easy with me or the rest of the team,” admitted goalkeeper and captain Gemma Fay.

“You could look back at our other play-off defeats against Russia and Spain and say we were unlucky, but Holland deserved to win the World Cup games, especially the second leg. We want to walk off the pitch knowing we did everything we could, and we didn't then.”

The next time the nations met, in the Cyprus Cup the following March, Scotland won 3-1 on a sodden pitch in Larnaca with Kim Little, who was outstanding, scoring a hat-trick. Prior to the World Cup play-off, Scotland won other Cyprus Cup games 1-0 and 4-3.

Little, who scored five goals in the five Holland games, is a conspicuous absence tonight. The 25-year-old midfielder rejoined Arsenal from Seattle Reign on Monday, but is being given time to fully recover from a hamstring niggle.

Also out are Rachel Corsie, with a knee injury, and Jenny Beattie, who has flu. That limits Anna Signeul's central defensive options and she is likely to start with veteran Ifeoma Dieke and Hibernian captain Joelle Murray.

The better news for Scotland is that Holland have similar problems. Their dominant central defender, Stefanie van der Gragt, has returned to Bayern Munich for an operation on a broken jaw, having travelled to Scotland without realising the extent of the damage sustained in a league match on Sunday.

Van der Gragt gave Hibs no end of problems in the air at corners and set-pieces in their Champions League last 32 tie this month and Murray, for one, will be relieved not to be facing her again.

Also unavailable are the two wide attacking players, Manon Melis and Lieke Martens, who scored all four goals and were Holland's most dangerous players in the 2014 play-off matches. Melis was a team-mate of Little and Corsie at Seattle this season, but retired from international football in March. Martens is injured.

The 3-1 win in Larnaca saw a rare start for back-up goalkeeper Shannon Lynn, but Fay has held the jersey for so long that she is closing down on an incredible 200 Scotland caps. She won her 194th in Reykjavik against Iceland last month, having won the first against the Czech Republic in 1998 when she was just 16.

The 34-year-old Glasgow City keeper admits she might have retired after next month's SSE Scottish Women's Cup final against Hibs had Scotland not qualified for the Euros.

“I didn't think about it until after the Iceland game, in terms of 'this could have been the end of my Scotland career',” she said. “So, yes, retiral is something I've thought about. Anyone who is my age in women's sport would.”