ENGLAND men gave a battling performance against the Netherlands in their
second pool game at the TriFinance EuroHockey Championships in Boom,
Belgium, but lost 2-1 to the co-favourites.
The Dutch had the
better first half and went into the break with a two-goal lead. They
were more creative up front with swift counter-attacks while England
made little impact against a sound Dutch defence.
Billy Bakker opened the scoring in the sixth minute and Jelle Galema added a second after 24 minutes.
In the second half England kept the Dutch in check and skipper Barry Middleton gave his side hope with a 54th minute strike.
Despite
the absence of Ben Arnold, rested after suffering concussion in
Sunday's game with Poland, and Harry Martin tweaking a hamstring early
in this game, England finished strongly but without reward.
England coach Bobby Crutchley said: "We started slowly and two mis-traps gifted them goals.
"But our second half performance was pleasing as our defending was tighter and we restricted the space for the Dutch.
"Our meeting with Ireland on Wednesday will be a crunch match with a sem-final at stake."
England's
women face Scotland in their final pool game today (Tuesday) when a win
will secure them a place in Thursday's semi-finals.
England have
beaten Spain 3-0 and lost to Germany 2-1 while the Scots have lost
twice against Germany (1-0) and Spain (2-1) and cannot reach the
semi-finals.
Scotland will be playing for pride and to avoid
relegation to the European second tier but previous history in meetings
between the two countries is very one-sided.
This is their first meeting for seven years with England having the record of 97 wins in the 110 internationals played to date.
