Tuesday’s match of the World U20 (21) Championships, saw
England play group leader Spain, who beat Chile 9-0 the evening
before.

England started the match with Mike Ableson, Ricky Jupp,
Graeme Stewart, Stan Oaten and Ashley Pay (in goal) and despite
taking a goal at 17:58 when a ball went through the goalkeepers
legs at left post (0-1), England looked strong in the face of
relentless pressure from a quality side.

At 10:50 a Spanish attacker was fairly dispossessed of the ball in
the area, then fell over the leg of a defender, and was given a
penalty, which Pay beautifully saved, but in the next possession
(10:10) Spain counter attacked with three men to score a solo
goal on the right post (0-2).

Tired by 10 minutes of extreme defence, Jupp made a silly foul
when he grabbed the leg of a fallen opponent, preventing him
from returning in defence, which resulted in an open counter
attack being called back and Oaten wrongly given a Yellow card.

At 08:22 Spain called a timeout in order to change tactics, but
did not score again till a long shot up the centre of England’s
defence (02:01) went in and another (01:40) was allowed after
first hitting their player in the chest, dropping well, and then
being flicked into goal, taking England to the break 0-4 with
37% possession in the half.

Returning from the break, Coach Kos Galtos made the mistake
of leaving keeper Ashley Pay, who was totally exhausted from a
brilliant performance, on and this cost the team three goals that
he was just not able to cover (18:24, 17:30, 16:41)

With the score (0-7) not reflecting the nature of the match or the
excellent performance of England’s players in defence, the fresh
Conroy was brought on to replace Pay.

Conroy immediately picked up where Pay left off and at 09:56
saved a direct free hit called when Holmes dropped and attacker
with his stick, another (08:40) when Oaten was sent off for
pulling down a player on the counter attack.

At 05:45 Scott Willard made a beautiful forward pass from the
right barrier inside his half to Ableson charging up the centre
who was then dropped in the penalty area to earn a penalty,
which was not converted.

Exhausted on their feet from their committed play, England were
unable to cover players in response to two counter attacks (04:
22 and 03:30) and allowed two more goals (0-9) before the end
of a match where they had 35% possession.