England cruised past Poland in their EuroHockey Championships opener on Sunday morning in Amsterdam but Barry Middleton insists there is much more to come from his side.
Mark Gleghorne and Sam Ward both bagged doubles while Chris Griffiths and David Condon were also on the scoresheet in a dominant 6-0 victory that moves them top of Pool B ahead of their clash with Germany, tomorrow.
England were knocked out of the semi-finals in London in the 2015 Championships by Germany and ended up with a frustrating fourth-place finish.
And this time around Middleston hopes he and his team-mates will find an extra gear for their crunch clash coming up.
“We are nearly there, there are a few bits to iron out probably in an early morning game, our first game of the tournament,” he said.
“It can get a bit frustrating with each other because you are not quite perfect, expectations become a bit big because you want to be perfect the whole time.
“But the start of the tournament, we got some goals, it is kind of job done and we look to tomorrow.”
Meanwhile head coach Bobby Crutchley warned his players that they will need to be far more consistent against a German side who claimed European silver two years ago.
"We scored some really good goals and there was some good play but it was a little inconsistent. We are now looking forward to improving ahead of our match with Germany tomorrow," he said.
“I thought we were a bit thick at times to be honest, either the corners we gave away, or being sloppy.
“Some areas were good and when we passed it well, Poland struggled. It looked easy but we weren’t consistent enough by keeping the quality up.
Sportsbeat 2017