Since 2001 we have been participating in Group A (6 Championships in total), although we were relegated in 2001 and 2003 and promoted the following year. We learnt lessons from the years when we were relegated and consequently we prepared the team to ensure we would stay up in Group A, 2005 being our best participation.

Since 2006 I have not been happy with the way we have prepared the teams for the Europeans and Worlds Championships. The lack of commitment from the players due to financial, family and work commitments have made very difficult for the Senior Team to follow a preparation plan, we had in some competitions turned up without managing to have all 10 players training together prior to the Championships.

This year was even worst as in March we didn’t have players enough that could commit financially to participate in San Juan. We considered not participating in this competition but fortunately we managed to get 10 players could commit to attend the Worlds. However we still had problems to train the team, we didn’t have a practice session with final squad together, the only time we managed to be together was in Argentina in a warm up game.

The reality is that we were very luck staying up in 2009 with another bad preparation but as I always said we need to be prepared to end up in Group B if things don’t change. So, here we are back to Group B and now it is time to start new era for seniors.

As a final note at this year’s Championship the team played well together in defence and attack, probably the England Senior Team had more ball possession and produced more goal opportunities, than in previous Championships. Quite often for 75% of our matches we were competitive and sometimes in control, however the reason we lost the majority of these games was due to lack of concentration and competitive fitness, mental and experience in short periods of the games which cost us most of the goals conceded.

We need to become sharper to be more competitive at this level, this way we will convert more of our chances and reduce the period where the team lose the control of the game.

England 7 South Africa 4 (Half-Time 3-3)

England showed their pride

We decided to rotate all the players in this game giving more time to the players didn’t play as much during the week, also the start line were never on the rink at the same time.

England began the game very slow and lack of concentration in defence which caused us to be 3-0 down. A couple of changes and inspiring the need for the players to show more enthusiasm. The team started to play more consistent and we managed to get 3-3 before half-time.

At Half-Time we insisted the players to show their pride and the second half was a much better consistent game in defence pressuring half way line. Good attack moves with good ball circulation resulted in a justified final score.

Goals scorer:
Owen Stewart – 2 goals
Marc Waddingham – 2 goals
Michael Ableson – 2 goals
James Taylor – 1 goal

England 3 Holland 4 (Half-Time 2-0)

3 Minutes of a hell

England dominated all first half, defending very well man to man restricted, with counter attacks. We had a lot of ball possession and the 2 goals came from switch and number 3 moves.

In the second half we lost the consistency of our game although we still dominating, with the result 3-2 to us we had very bad last 3 minutes of the game where the team lost control and Holland scored winning goal with 26 seconds to go.

We only can blame ourselves for this result as we missed lot of goal opportunities in both halves which can’t happen at this level.

Goal scorers:
James Taylor – 2 goals
Marc Waddingham – 1 goal