Hockey: England pay for Wyatt's delayed start

England 4 New Zealand 5

England paid dearly for what seemed an unnecessarily experimental starting line-up against New Zealand yesterday in their fourth game here in the Six Nations Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

Starting the game without Olympic defender Jon Wyatt, England shipped three goals in the opening 12 minutes.

England's slim chance of making the final had earlier been dismissed after Germany had fought back from 3-1 down to beat Australia 5-3. England play Malaysia today facing the threat of a wooden spoon game on Sunday.

The humiliation would have been worse yesterday but for two penalty-corner goals from Jason Lee, another from Wyatt, and a late goal from open play by Russell Garcia.

ENGLAND: J Lewis (Cannock); B Garrard (Teddington), J Halls (HDM, The Hague), B Waugh (Southgate, capt), A Humphrey (Cannock); Kalbir Takher (Cannock), J Pidcock (Cannock), N Thompson ( Old Loughtonians); C Mayer (Cannock) R Garcia (HDM, The Hague), M Pearn (Reading). Substitutes: J Wyatt (Reading), Manpreet Kochar (Cannock), B Sharpe (Cannock), J Lee (Old Loughtonians).

NEW ZEALAND: S Anderson (capt); P Derham; A Timlin, A Hastie, R Tattershaw; J Radonovich, S Towns, D Smith; R Archibald, Umesh Parag, B Hari. Substitutes used: D Gosling, K Robinson, H Gill.

Umpires: P Schellekens (Ned), K Ananthavale (Mas).