England's women went down to New Zealand in their third Pool B match in the Commonwealth Games this morning. Ashleigh Ball scored her first international goal to give England a 14th minute lead, but a lacklustre performance and some sloppy passing threw the match away. New Zealand went into the second half 2-1 ahead, thanks to goals from Samantha Harrison and Katie Glynn, and it was Glynn who took advantage of the power play when Helen Richardson was sin-binned in the 50th minute. Two more goals from her sunk England's chances and the match ended 4-1 in England's favour. England play their final pool match against Malaysia tomorrow, needing a win or a draw to guarantee their progression through to a semi-final place.
The other Pool B match today saw Wales take a 1-0 lead against Canada, courtesy of Emma Batten, but two Canadian goals in the last two minutes robbed Wales of the points.
In Pool A, South Africa drew 1-1 against Australia, and Trinidad and Tobago went down 7-0 to India, with captain Surinder Kaur scoring four of India's goals.
There were two men's matches today. In Pool A Scotland were beaten 2-0 by Malaysia. Scotland are the only team in either the men's or women's tournament who have yet to record a goal. In Pool B, Canterbury's Kwan Browne scored the first of three goals recorded by Trinidad & Tobago in their match against South Africa this afternoon. But goals from Gareth Carr (2), Lance Louw, Justin Reid-Ross and Taine Paton, gave South Africa a 5-3 win.
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