England pipped by Canada

Hockey England 2 Canada

England were denied a tournament victory yesterday on goal difference as Canada won the four nations competition at Bisham Abbey by securing a draw in their final match - against England.

David Whitaker, the England coach, said. ''I am delighted overall but we still have a lot of work to do before Dublin's European Cup next month.''

England, who on Saturday fought back from a 3-1 deficit against Spain to score twice in the last five minutes through Rob Thompson and Calum Giles, went behind against the run of play in the sixth minute of their match with Canada.

An interchange between Peter Milkovich and Andrew Griffiths ended with the latter opening the scoring. England levelled 17 minutes into the second half through their corner specialist, Giles, but within three minutes Canada had regained the lead from a penalty corner shot from Robin D'Abreo.

England clawed their way back into the game for a second time with Ben Sharpe following up at another Giles' strike for the equaliser, setting up an exciting last 10 minutes.

Scotland's weekend was less successful. They lost their three games, failed to score and conceded 10 goals.

ENGLAND: D Luckes (East Grinstead); J Wyatt (Reading), J Halls (Old Loughtonians); S Hazlitt (Hounslow), Soma Singh (capt) (Southgate), R Garcia (Polo Barcelona); C Mayer (Cannock), J Shaw (Southgate), R Thompson (Hounslow), J Laslett (Teddington), N Thompson (Old Loughtonians). Substitutes used: C Giles (Havant), B Sharpe (Cannock) and K Takher (Cannock).

CANADA: H Kant; P Burrows (capt), R Edamura, A Brahmst, R D'Abreo; P Milkovich, R Short, B Chohan; C Gifford, A Griffiths, M Gacek. Substitutes used: D Harris and A Evans.

Umpires: D Wallis (Sco) and A Morales (Sp).