The Turkish women were never rated as one of the strongest teams here but you cannot take anything away from the barnstorming performance produced by the England women here in Sheffield in the EuroHockey Indoor Nations Challenge this evening. England had Turkey pinned back into their own half for most of the first period and only some effective goalkeeping by Elif Balci kept England from causing a major landslide. In fact England had only found the net four time - thanks to a penalty stroke and a penalty corner goal by Sally Walton and goals in open play by Emma Thomas and Alex Scott - when the Turks made one of the daftest substitutions I have seen for some time and replaced Balci with Derya Karaoglan. After that the floodgates just opened, with Scott finding the net twice more. Sally Walton added to the Turks misery with a third, and Emma Thomas went on to be one of three England players to score a hat-trick. Sarah Page joined the party with a fine goal from open play. Final score 10-0 to England.
Turkey are not Germany, so celebrations may be premature, but this was a very composed performance by England’s women, which will bring hope for success in tomorrow’s matches. England play Denmark tomorrow afternoon, followed by Sweden in the evening. The two Scandinavians sides met earlier today, with both teams seemingly running out of legs before the end of play. Denmark won the match 3-1. England look a far fitter team than either of their opponents tomorrow, so there are grounds for optimism.
An early goal by England’s Adam Dixon in their second match of the day, did not necessarily bring a sigh of relief. Playing Croatia in the men’s tournament, they looked likely to repeat their performance of earlier in the day, a feeling that was only helped by a late equaliser in the first half. The initial exchanges in the second half did not give room for optimism but in a golden period ten minutes into the second half England found the net twice, the first from a penalty corner by Richard Smith and the second four minutes later from Simon Egerton in open play. It was more with a sigh of relief than a feeling of elation that the final hooter was heard, but this was a much improved performance over this morning. The Croatians proved earlier in the day that they could play indoor hockey and so England can take some encouragement from this result.
England play Bulgaria tomorrow afternoon and Turkey in the evening.
Our photographs show some support in the crowd for Sally Walton, Alex Scott watches her 22nd minute penalty corner find its target, and Richard Smith battling during the England v Croatia match.
