England's women got off to a fine start in their opening match in the European Indoor Nations Championships here in Salgelse this morning.
With England contributing the major part of the Great Britain squad in Argentina, the indoor squad here in Denmark consisted of experience plus a number of senior hopefuls. Calling them a makeshift squad however, would hardly be fair in mind of the performance they put in. Forty minutes of consistent pressure on the Slovak Republic took its time to get any result, and there were only two penalty corner goals as a reward, both from Denise Marston-Smith.
England's fitness at international level is almost becoming legendary, and when England players swamped their opponents, they were swiftly back to cover any danger caused. Katie Long, often to be found on the left, was constantly pressurising the Slovak defence, and after Sam Quek had made it three for England, Long was rewarded with two goals.
The icing on the cake came when Emma Thomas scored England's sixth, leaving the final score 6-1 in England's favour.
Earlier Lithuania beat a rather naive Russian side 9-2 in the other Pool B match.
