Hockey: England end Australia's eight-year record

(AP)

England's women registered their first tournament win over Australia for eight years with a 3-2 victory at the Champions Trophy in Amsterdam yesterday.

Only the top five in this tournament automatically qualify for next year's event in Argentina, which will play an important part in the build-up to the London Olympics.

And Danny Kerry's side must face the Hockeyroos again tomorrow to play-off for fifth as the pair finished as the top two of their classification mini-pool after Germany's victory over China earlier in the day.

"We went into the match with a couple of plans depending on what happened in the previous game," said Kerry. "Having seen the result we adjusted accordingly. We played all right at times but we still gave the ball away a bit too often."

With their places in the fifth-place play-off already secure, the match was more open than would have been expected.

Reading defender Kate Walsh scored her 30th international goal from a penalty corner a minute before the break to put England ahead only for Jade Close to equalise six minutes into the second half.

But a minute later Leicester midfielder Anne Panter, in her first international tournament for two and a half years after a knee injury threatened her career, fired home a reverse-stick shot.

Slough forward Nicola White gave her side a two-goal cushion with 10 minutes remaining and it was needed after Marnie Hudson pulled one back late on.