Aimee
Australia avoided a huge shock at the death before edging a nervy penalty shoot-out to beat England and win hockey gold in the Commonwealth Games on Sunday morning.
England’s Lily Owsley looked to have scored the winner in wet conditions, slotting home in open play in the second half, only for Australia to grasp one last vital chance at the death.
A penalty corner in the final minute saw the English defence rush out too early, and with a numerical advantage on the retake, Australia pounced to score.
Jodie Kenny controlled the ball from a rebound in the box before flicking home decisively with just 14 seconds left on the clock.
“That’s a special feeling to win a game like that. Fortunately for us we only needed 69 minutes, 49 seconds to score,” coach Adam Commens said after the successful shoot-out.
“That was the intent of the English defence, to stack back there. Unfortunately for us they scored and then they could play that way the rest of the match.
“We were confident we were going to score. We’ve got the ability to score. We’ve got a good penalty corner play and we knew we would put one in if we got enough chances. We got two and one went in.”
