Draper: We need to add more belief to our game

PASSIONATE Welshman Jacob Draper wiped away the tears and urged his side to have more belief after a painful 4-2 defeat to old rivals England at the Commonwealth Games.

After impressively beating Canada 5-1 in their opener, Wales’ hockey team went behind inside two minutes when Sam Ward’s powerful penalty corner got the home crowd on their feet.

But Lewis Prosser’s neat deflection made it 1-1 at half-time before Nick Bandurak scored his fourth penalty corner of the Games to give England the lead in the third quarter.

Wales midfielder James Carson reacted fastest to smash home another equaliser in the final quarter, but England immediately went back in front through Phillip Roper before Bandurak volleyed home from close range to dash Wales’ chances of an upset.

Cwmbran’s Draper said: “We forget with all the rivalry how good England are at times.

“I think we need to have a bit more belief in ourselves as we went toe to toe with them for large portions of that game.

“On another day that score could definitely be different.

“It was a bit emotional as whenever you play England as a Welshman it is always a little bit of a grudge match.

“Your emotions have to take over and who wants to win the ball and the game normally does.

“Unfortunately, I feel like we wanted to win it but some of the bounces and some of the luck was on their side.

“I’m not taking anything away from them – they were brilliant, but so were we and now it’s about focusing on the next game.”

Wales face Ghana, who England dispatched 6-0, on Wednesday as they look to get back to winning ways in Pool B and Draper insisted it was far too early to write off their medal hopes.

He added: “Nothing is gone yet, we can win both of those games coming up. It’s just a matter of executing what we say we are going to do.

“It was a tough one to take. Whenever you play England it’s always going to be tight and close. I’m so proud of the boys, they were unbelievable.

“It’s a long tournament and the benefit of tournament hockey is you can right those wrongs in the next game.

“I thought the boys were brilliant, we just got pipped to the post against very good opposition.”