England's young guns lose their way

Andy Humphrey gave England a sound start to their three-match tour in Gniezno with a 16th-minute penalty corner goal against the hosts, Poland, before they lost their way against a side peaking for the World Cup qualifier in Edinburgh next month.

Tomass Choczaj equalised for Poland in the 26th minute with Marcin Wichlacz scoring the winner in the 49th, both field goals resulting from slack marking. The margin would have been larger but for a fine penalty stroke save by Jimi Lewis.

England's coach Malcolm Wood, who continued with his policy of giving his 10 new caps as much experience as possible before selecting his squad for the élite Aslam Shah Tournament in Kuala Lumpur in August, felt it was a creditable performance from his young side in the face of some odd umpiring decisions.

Paradoxically, he was less impressed with England's 4-1 victory against the Czech Republic the day before, when he felt his side should have scored more than the two braces they did get from David Matthews and Adrian Wilkinson.

He felt that even the outstanding performance from the Czech goalkeeper, Philip Busek, should not have prevented England from scoring more goals. He said that result "highlights our need for better finishing."

England's next outing is a rare home appearance at Cannock on 13 July (starting 7pm) against New Zealand.