Dutch take full advantage of weary defence

England 1 Netherlands 4

England were last night beaten 4-1 by the Dutch Olympic champions in an exciting game at the National Stadium here last night before an appreciative crowd. England held their own for long periods before tiring in the closing quarter.

England opened confidently, moving the ball around with great purpose and, having survived an early Dutch penalty corner thanks to a double save by Simon Mason, took the lead in the 10th minute. Tom Bertram rattled the backboards at England's first and only penalty corner of the half.

The Dutch stepped up a gear, with their speed of attack posing all sorts of problems to England's left defence, and Taeke Taekema flashed a drag shot past Mason for the equaliser in the 15th minute.

Five minutes later they were in the lead. Teun de Nooijer, driving down the left, took advantage of the umpire holding his whistle to score a splendid individual goal.

The second half developed into a cat-and-mouse contest with both teams paying each other much respect, with an early chance falling to Danny Hall with a deflection just wide from Jon Wyatt's free hit.

Mason then made a couple of good saves from Taekema, while at the other end a couple of half-chances fell to Mark Pearn.

In the closing three minutes the Dutch took advantage of a tiring English defence to score twice. Matthijs Brouwer brought a good save out of Mason before following up to score the third and then in the final minute Nooijer scored his second.

England: S Mason; A Humphrey, T Bertram, J Evennett; J Wyatt, B Waugh; J Goudie, Manpreet Kochar, J Wallis; M Pearn, D Hall (capt). Substitutes used: D Mathews, R Todd, D Haydon.

Netherlands: G Vogels; E Jazet; P-H Geeris, D Van Weel, T Taaekema; S Van der Weide, J Delmee (Capt), T De Nooijer; R Van Wijk, M Eikelboom, M Brouwer. Substitutes used: M Van Wijk, R Brouwerr, R Derikx, M Booij.

Umpires: J Heron, G Curran (Scotland).