England men’s hockey team kicked off their Hockey World League Semi Final campaign with victory over China to sit top of their pool after the opening day.
Two quick-fire goals from Barry Middleton and Mark Gleghorne in the opening quarter set the hosts on their way at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre and they were never seriously troubled afterwards.
In fact, the scoreline could have been even greater with England creating plenty of chances but failing to find the finishing touch.
As it was though, two goals proved enough as England, led by the new captaincy trio of George Pinner, Ian Sloan and Phil Roper, got off to a solid start.
Roper said: “We scored two nice goals, at the end there we needed to take a bit more care of our attacking play as we had opportunities, we just need to be a bit better in the final stages.
“But it’s really important we got off to a win, there are no easy games at this stage of the Hockey World League.”
Just 44 seconds separated the two goals on the night with former captain Middleton playing a clever one-two with Sam Ward on 11 minutes before slotting home for his 107th international goal on his 380th appearance.
And when Middleton was cut down while bearing down on goal after seizing on a poor defensive immediately afterwards, Gleghorne stepped up to convert the penalty stroke.
China won their only short corner of the game in the final minute but England preserved their clean sheet to stay top of Pool A on goal difference from Argentina who beat Korea 2-1.
“It’s the start of a tournament and the first game. There was a bit of frustration out there, we wanted to get a few more goals but we can be happy with a winning start and we’ll build from here,” added Middleton.
“This is a new group which has come together now. It’s for others to step up now and lead the team.
“We spoke about pressing the China defence and being aggressive. It’s a real step forward to be on the front foot. We want to keep a clean sheet but score some goals as well.
“We put the energy in, the first game of the tournament is always a bit nervy but next game (against Malaysia on Saturday) we’ve got to step up.”
Earlier in the day, Scotland were unable to mark their opening game with a victory as they lost out to India 4-1.
Chris Grassick had put Scotland ahead after six minutes but India hit back with Ramandeep Singh notching two before Akashdeep Singh and Harmanpreet Singh completed the scoring.
Scotland men’s Head Coach Derek Forsyth said, “We got off to a great start and played really well throughout the first quarter, certainly defensively. At half time we discussed being better on the ball and trying to cause a few new problems for India.
“Unfortunately we got off to a bad start in the third quarter, and got punished. We know where we need to improve, and we will, and our aim is to improve with each performance throughout the tournament.”
Sportsbeat 2017