England Off To A Good Start In The European Hockey Qualifiers

Fielding a full-strength squad following their Commonwealth Games success, England made a convincing start to their European Qualifier campaign with a high scoring 15-0 win over Croatia.  The gulf in world rankings showed as England dominated possession and were 8-0 up by half time, before scoring another seven in the second half.   Wales also won comfortably in their first match, which sets up Saturday’s clash between the home nations as a potential tournament decider.  

England set the tone from the start of the first quarter with the bulk of time in attack and making quick inroads into the Croatian circle.  The deadlock was broken after only 5 minutes from a trademark Hannah Martin deflection of Anna Toman’s slap shot at their third penalty corner.  Another penalty corner goal followed with Grace Balsdon drag flicking into the top left hand corner before Tess Howard made it 3-0 from open play.  She was on the end of Laura Unsworth’s pass at the top of the circle, turned and shot low to the right of the goalkeeper.  Hannah Martin got her second after 14 minutes, this time turning in a cross from Fiona Crackles from close range.  Right at the end of the quarter England made it five with Giselle Ansley’s straight strike at goal from a penalty corner. 

In quarter 2, it took England another seven minutes to advance the score line.  Balsdon’s low drag from a penalty corner was saved, the follow up from Martin was also saved on the line but rolled to Sophie Hamilton who had the simplest of finishes to score from close range.  Ansley made it 7-0 with her second penalty corner strike and the eighth came from Hannah Martin who turned and undercut on the reverse stick high into the top left hand corner to complete her first half hat-trick. 

As Croatia started to tire in the third quarter, England were ruthless and showed no signs of slowing down.  Six goals followed, making it their most productive period of the game.  Two came from Ellie Rayer, Lily Owsley and Izzy Petter chipped in with a goal apiece, Hannah Martin added her 4^th and Tess Howard got her second.  14-0 at the end of the 3^rd quarter. 

By contrast the final quarter of the match was quite quiet, as England finally took their foot off the accelerator and only added one more.  The goal came from another penalty corner and Anna Toman’s slapshot went straight in despite the best efforts of her teammates to get a deflection.  Final score 15-0.

England: Hinch, Toman, Martin, Rayer, Howard, Ansley, Pearne-Webb, Crackles, McCallin, Owsley, Peel. 
Subs: Unsworth, Hunt, Petter, Hamilton, Heesh, Balsdon, Malzer.