Heartache for Kirkham's boys

ENGLAND and Grimsby-born Glenn Kirkham's World Cup campaign ground to a halt as they were beaten 4-1 by Germany in the semi-finals.

Hopes were high after an impressive group stage campaign in Delhi which saw them become the first to qualify for the last four thanks to victories over favourites Australia, India. Pakistan and South Africa.

But goals from Jan-Marco Montag, Oliver Korn, Martin Haner and Linus Butt ensured that Germany made it to the final. Richard Smith was the sole scorer for the English.

Speaking after the semi-final, England coach Jason Lee said: "I'm quite disappointed with the performance. We were two-nil down through mistakes of our own making within about 10 minutes.

"We had some good play for long periods but, because we were pushing forwards, we opened ourselves up. That's why the scoreline got away from us."

England fell behind from Germany's first penalty corner of the match when Montag gave Germany the lead after just six minutes.

Alastair Brogdon thought that he had equalised in the ninth minute when he lifted the ball over goalkeeper Tim Jessault from the tightest of angles and into the net. But, umpire Tim Pullman ruled it out after Kirkham had collided with the goalkeeper.

In the 11th minute, England's task became significantly more difficult when Korn latched onto a deflected pass in towards the penalty spot as he added his own deflection to take the ball beyond James Fair to make it 2-0.

In the 19th minute, England scored when Smith's low flick straight down the middle of the goal found its way under the left leg of Jessault to pull one back for England.

But in the 31st minute Germany re-established their two goal advantage from their fourth corner – Haner having time to place a flick into the top right corner to make it 3-1.

In the second half, German captain Maximillian Muller produced an excellent touch on his own penalty spot to divert Kirkham's pass into the circle away from the waiting James Tindall at the back post as England probed.

And Germany then completed the scoring, as Fair got down well to save Haner's low effort but Butt reacted quickest to a loose ball to slap the ball high into the net.

"We didn't hit the performance we wanted and, when you do that against Germany, you're always going to struggle," added England's James Tindall.