England's women played their second match in a two-match series against Spain in Nottingham this afternoon. It was a game where England showed much promise, with some excellent individual skills in evidence, but which seemed to fizzle out in the second half.
Helen Richardson (shown here with her 100th cap, presented by England Hockey president Martin Gotheridge on Saturday) opened the scoring after 17 minutes and Chloe Strong followed up with a penalty corner conversion eight minutes later. But the match slid from being dazzling to tedious in the second half, despite Alex Danson's early penalty corner conversion. Spain had their chances and Beth Story made a series of fine saves throughout the match. But she was unable to stop Gloria Comerna's 56th minute penalty corner strike, which gave the visitors their only goal of the match.
Final score 3-1 to England.
MEN'S JUNIOR WORLD CUP
England suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Belgium in their first second round match in Malaysia earlier today. England were two behind by the break and were not able to get back into the match.
More information about the Junior World Cup will appear tomorrow.
