England pushed themselves into the semifinals of the Commonwealth Games men’s hockey tournament with a 3-1 defeat of Canada at Glasgow Green on Thursday.
They will now meet world champions Australia on Saturday to battle for a place in Sunday’s final.
Ashley Jackson opened the scoring before the break, cleverly diverting in Barry Middleton’s driven cross and skipper Middleton then added a second immediately after half-time.
Jackson added his second and England’s third from a corner halfway through the second period to take his tally for the tournament to seven. England goalkeeper George Pinner saw his clean sheet ruined at the death however as Scott Tupper bagged a consolation corner for the Canadians.
Jackson said: “Canada are a physical side and the tighter they kept it for longer the better it suited them.
“A couple of early goals would have made it much easier for us but we were in control the whole time.
“The next step for this group of players is to make a final, we are ranked fourth in the world and have been very much playing to that ranking, unable to make that next step to get the right result in semi-finals.
“It does not matter who we face, we are confident going into the Australia game, we have lost a few times but we have already beaten them.”
