Hockey: Willmore has more will

ENGLAND qualified for the semi- finals of the Women's Under-21 European Cup at Cramond by beating the Unified Team 1-0 and finishing second in their pool behind Spain on goal difference. They play the Netherlands tomorrow.

It was a spirited England performance against a side who have yet to score but were capable of causing a number of problems, and although England grew more dominant as the game progressed they will be reflecting on some poor finishing and another good goalkeeping performance by Carolyn Reid.

Tracey Willmore put England ahead in the seventh minute, sneaking in at the far post. England should have gone further ahead just after the interval but Lucy Youngs miscued in front of an open goal. A fine effort by Elena Polokova was denied by an excellent save by Reid before Youngs twice shot wide and Karen Harvey wasted a clear chance by driving the ball straight at the goalkeeper.

Harvey was to make amends two minutes from the end clearing off the line with Reid beaten to keep the England goal intact after three games.

Germany clinched the last semi- final place, beating Scotland 2-1.

ENGLAND: C Reid; K Harvey, N Jones, L Cope, L Culliford, F Lee, A Wakefield, L Youngs (capt), J Green, T Willmore. Substitutes used: K MacDonald, L King.

UNIFIED TEAM: M Martchenko (capt); L Davydotchina, S Prokofieva, T Sosnikhina, I Sviridova, E Zadoubrovskia, O Tchelycheva, N Shevakova, I Piskounova, E Polovkova, N Kovaleva. Substitutes used: O Ouchkova, S Kibalnik.

Umpires: U Lowenstein (Ger) and M Power (Irl).

WOMEN'S U-21 EUROPEAN CUP (Cramond): Pool A: Spain 4 France 0; England 1 Unified Team 0. Pool B: Netherlands 5 Ireland 0; Germany 2 Scotland 1.