New Delhi: England put behind their agonizing exit from the semifinals to down World Cup champions and World No.2 Australia 2-1 to win the Bronze medal in the inaugural Hero Hockey World League Final at the Dhyan Chand Stadium here on Friday.

The match began with some aggressive and attacking hockey by Australia which later fizzled out but more visible was the strong defence by England who save at least half of the Australia’s 10 penalty corners on the goalline. It is interesting to note that all the goals were field goals. This is the fourth match in the tournament which produced all field goals. In fact, on the final day only once short corner was converted of the 22 earned in the four matches. “Yes, they played well in the defence. At least, half dozen good saves on the line. That does not happen every day,’’ conceded Australian coach Ric Charlesworth when asked about the bad conversion rate.

England scored against the run of play after a costly mistake where Aussies lost the ball in the midfield and English skipper Barry Middleton put Tom Carson in possession through a long cross and Carson caught the goalie on the wrong foot to tap home from handshaking distance. The 13th minute goal found an immediate answer from the Kookaburras, who drew level withing three minutes with Glenn Turner turning out to be the goal scorer following a back pass from Eddie Ockenden.

Thereafter, Australia excelled in converting raids into short corners. They manufactured 6 short corners in the space of 10 minutes, four before the break and three after. But goalkeeper, George Pinner stood like a rock in the English cage, thwarting every move and he was ably assisted by his defenders.

England failed to take lead once again when Alistair Brogdon hit the post and Adam Dixon sent in a backhander inches wide. However, a defence piercing long ball from Ashley Jackson found Barry Middleton deflecting from near the spot, and the 54th minute goal turned out to be the match winner.

Australia forced three more penalty corners in vain prompting their coach Charlesworth later, to quip: “May be we should aim to score field goals than getting penalty corners.’’

There was drama in the end and one though the mighty Aussie will force a shoot out and it almost happened until a referral reversed their penalty corner conversion.

In a brilliant indirect variation, Kieran Govers, the top scorer of the tournament, played a dummy and Glenn Turners shot found its way into the goal but a blinded umpire Roel van Eert who was watching only Glen Turner and the ball, missed a body infringement on the English first runner by Govers and he rightly called the video umpire to check. The video umpire’s decision after clear replays caught the mistake and England became proud winners of the bronze beating a better ranked and dangerous team.

Hero Man of the Match Iain Lewers, said: “We have come a long way in the past nine months. We were very disappointed in semifinals, but we did really well to come back.”

George Pinner, who is celebrating his 27th birthday on Saturday (Jan 18) added: “Today was the team you saw in the first four games. It was agonising to lose in the semifinals on a shoot out, so it really shows the calibre of this team to pick itself up. The main thing that we did today was defend bravely. We know that games can be won through penalty corners, so we have made it our focus not to concede so many.”

Ric Charlesworth, the Australian coach, said: “We were too loose at the back. We allowed them to score from very few chances and we didn’t put our chances away as we should have done. But, it has been a great experience, especially for the younger guys. They have had a chance to experience playing against very tough opposition.”

ends