England seal convincing victory over Malaysia
27th July 2014
ENGLAND 5 (2)
Ellie Watton 17 (PC)
Giselle Ansley 35+ (PC)
Sophie Bray 42 (PC)
Alex Danson 50 (PS)
Hollie Webb 70 (PC)
MALAYSIA 0 (0)
Team England's women's hockey team maintained their unbeaten start at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. England were always expected to brush aside Malaysia, who they've never lost to and hadn't played since a similar convincing win four years ago in Delhi. And they duly delivered with a 5-0 win, although the real test comes on Monday against Australia, runners-up at the recent World Cup in Holland. They have scored 22 goals without response in their three games here.
After Malaysia's initial stubborn resistance, Ellie Watton broke their resolve, steering home a penalty corner in the 18th minute. But for all England's domination of possession, they didn't double their advantage until Giselle Ansley swept home a penalty corner on the stroke of half-time. Malaysian keeper Farah Ayuni Yahya did her best to keep the score line respectable until second half strikes from Sophie Bray, Alex Danson and Hollie Webb completed the win with England keeper Maddie Hinch only called into action a couple of times across the 70 minutes.
Georgie Twigg watched the game from the bench as she continues to recover from the groin injury she received against Wales.
England Captain Kate Richardson-Walsh, on the win and the next match against Australia:
"Tournament hockey is about building momentum and on the back of the summer we've had so far, it's key we got a couple of good wins under our belts. I'm just looking forward to Australia now. They've had a fantastic couple of years and they look like the Hockeyroos from the early part of my career when they were on top of the world. We go in as underdogs but we believe in ourselves and we can beat them."
England goal scorer Ellie Watton on the performance against Malaysia:
"It was a great team performance and great to get some goals behind us, so we're very happy. They were hard to break down to begin with but we kept our focus and once we got a couple of goals, we relaxed and the match started going our way."
Danny Kerry, England Head Coach, on the win and the next match against Australia:
“I thought we were very solid. Malaysia kept a lot of players behind the ball and we had to work hard on creating the openings in play. Across the 70 minutes we managed to create a reasonable amount and it’s good to get five goals, but we will have to be much slicker if we are going to score past Australia.”