England keep calm to win it
BARRY MIDDLETON hailed England’s cool heads after winning 4-2 in a madcap clash to keep their World Cup hopes alive and send Ireland packing.
Liam Ansell’s brilliant second-half strike set the tone during a frenetic third quarter which saw four goals in three minutes.
England held on in a nervy final five minutes to set up a crossover match against
New Zealand on Monday before the quarter-finals.
“We had intensity and we were calm in our heads. It came down to a crazy five minutes,” said Middleton.
England led through David Condon during a first half in which Ireland failed to make any circle entries. The game came alive in the 35th minute when Chris Cargo’s weighted pass went straight into England’s goal. With the next attack David Ames’ deft pass found Ansell, who scored from a tight angle. Ireland were still a big threat and Shane O’Donoghue struck.
But in the 38th minute James Gall’s deflection from Liam Sanford’s fizzing through ball looped into the top corner and Mark Gleghorne wrapped it up from a last-gasp penalty corner.