England's men played the first of three test matches against Pakistan at Cannock HC this evening. In a match that saw all the goals come in the first half, Akhtar Ali opened the scoring for the visitors from open play, but England got back into the game with an Ashley Jackson penalty corner seconds later. Muhammad Irfan scored what turned out to be the winner from a penalty corner shortly before half time.
Final score 2-1 to Pakistan.
After the match, coach Jason Lee commented, "I'm very disappointed with our play tonight, as is the team. It was a tired and lethargic display and our basics let us down. I'm sure the stats will show that we had more circle entries than they did, but we just couldn't finish. We're trying to integrate a lot of new players into the side, and we're trying to be a better team, trying new things out, but this can lead to mistakes being made."
ENGLAND SQUAD AGAINST PAKISTAN: James Fair (Cannock), Richard Mantell (Reading), Ben Hawes (Surbiton), Alastair Wilson (Beeston), Richard Smith (Loughborough Students), Ashley Jackson (HGC), Glenn Kirkham (C) (East Grinstead), Rob Moore (Surbiton), Barry Middleton (HGC), Simon Mantell (HGC), Matt Daly (Surbiton), Richard Alexander (Surbiton), Iain Mackay (Reading), Adam Dixon (Beeston), James Tindall (Surbiton) and Simon Egerton (Bowdon).
England next play Pakistan on Thursday. TalkHockeyRadio will be there with a report and photograph later in the evening.
