Humiliated 8-2: England continue love-eight relation with Pakistan

Hoping to win the Champions Trophy, Greenshirts eight their words

KARACHI: Pakistan fell to their second consecutive defeat of the Hero Hockey Champions Trophy, being humiliated 8-2 by fifth-ranked England at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India on Sunday.

England had defeated world number one side Australia 3-1 on Saturday and were brimming with confidence, scoring five goals in 11 second-quarter minutes to effectively end the game as a contest.

Mark Gleghorne scored the first field goal in the 15th minute, followed by efforts from David Condon and Nick Catlin in the 16th and 19th minutes. Captain Barry Middleton scored the fourth goal in the 24th minute and Ashley Jackson scored from a penalty corner just two minutes later to make it 5-0.

After a goalless third quarter, the final-quarter started with a goal from Samuel Ward in the 45th minute, followed by Alastair Brogdon’s 48th minute strike. Pakistan tried to get some semblance of a respectable scoreline by scoring two goals in the final three minutes, which sandwiched Chris Griffith’s 59th minute strike to give England a memorable 8-2 win.

Pakistan captain Muhammad Imran blames the inexperience of the player for the margin of the defeat. “Young players have entered such a high profile tournament too early and we are expecting too much from them,” said Imran, while talking to The Express Tribune from India.

He further added that the team looked disjointed and the weaker players were not helped out by the stronger ones. “England took advantage of this and scored on every chance they got,” he said. “We ourselves created several opportunities to score in the game but we let ourselves down. We have learnt our lessons and will focus for the game against Australia.”

Meanwhile, head coach Shehnaz Sheikh also felt that the difference between the two sides was how well they took their chances. “We had a number of opportunities to score, but we failed to convert them,” he said. “We made some simple mistakes and we found ourselves 7-0 down and eventually lost 8-2. You just cannot do that against England."

Sheikh also reserved praise for the victors. “England are a very tough team. They played very well but I appreciate my players, who put in a good performance.”

 

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