Hockey: Black Sticks knocked out of World Cup

The Black Sticks been knocked out of the Men's Hockey World Cup after going down to England 2-0.

Despite a number of great scoring opportunities the Black Sticks were unable to break through the English defence. England will now play Olympic champions Argentina in the quarter-finals while New Zealand are left to reflect on a mis-fired campaign that produced one victory in four games.

New Zealand started the game holding the ball and looking to size up the England defence, creating some early chances which they failed to make the most of.

The Black Sticks started the second quarter very strongly looking to assert themselves on the offensive end of the field. The English defence was resolute as they didn't let the Black Sticks enter their circle. England absorbed the early pressure and then worked there way into the quarter where they held some good possession and were looking patient as they waited for opportunities to open up.

With five minutes to go in the second quarter England's Phil Roper found himself on the end of a well placed overhead and drove along the baseline laying a ball back for Will Calnan to deflect the ball home. Despite a few opportunities the Black Sticks were unable to find an equaliser and went into the halftime break down 1-0.

The Black Sticks started to find their feet in the last few minutes of the third quarter when they had some deflections that were kept just out of the goal to maintain England's lead.

Just before the end of the third quarter England doubled the lead from a penalty corner, the first shot came off the post and then Luke Taylor trapped the rebound and swept it powerfully home past Richard Joyce.

The Black Sticks started the fourth quarter looking for a goal to get themselves back into the contest. Stephen Jenness and Nick Ross both had some great opportunities however England coalkeeper George Pinner managed to stand tall and pull off some great saves.

With 10 minutes to go the Black Sticks pulled their goalkeeper creating an overlap in the hopes of scoring the needed two goals to tie the match up. The Black Sticks conceded a penalty corner with no goalkeeper, Cory Bennett then ran out first as the field player with goalkeeping privileges and ran down the drag flick. England then looked to slow the game down and despite some great opportunities for the Black Sticks they were unable to get on the scoreboard.

Black Sticks 0
England 2 (Will Calnan 25', Luke Taylor 44')