Leah Wilkinson wants her Welsh Women’s hockey team to end their Commonwealth Games pool campaign on a high by beating Malaysia on Wednesday, 11 April.
A 2-0 defeat against South Africa has left them struggling to finish in the top two in Pool A, but they could still finish third if they can beat Malaysia. The two teams played out a 0-0 draw in Glasgow four years ago and Wilkinson is hoping for better in the return game.
“We were really disappointed with the result against South Africa, although the fact the we’re all so upset shows how far we’ve come as we were facing a team ranked 14th in the world,” said Wilkinson.
“We’re looking forward to taking on Malaysia and we’re in a fortunate position as we played them last year in Kuala Lumpur, so we’ve taken lessons from that. I’m pleased that once again we were competitive in the game against the South Africans.
“What’s disappointing is that when we had periods and phases of positive play with the ball we were unable to create meaningful and consistent goal chances. The difference between the two sides was in both circles.
“Credit to South Africa for taking their chances so well and for being so difficult for us to break down. We will learn from this experience though and remain determined to deliver better quality in our remaining games.”
Malaysia have yet to win a game, while Wilkinson’s braves have a 3-2 over world ranked No 10 side India to their credit. The 5-1 defeat to No 2 ranked England was tough to take, but there was enough to take out of the defeat to the South Africans to suggest Wales, the lowest ranked team in the pool, can push hard for the win that could see them move up into third place.
Wilkinson recovered from the eye injury she picked up against England to lead the side against South Africa. In strong sunshine, as opposed to the torrential rain in the England match, both sides failed to capitalise on a string of penalty corners in the first quarter.
South Africa opened their account at the end of the second quarter from Candice Manuel and it took a remarkable bit of defensive skill from Tina Evans to somehow stop a second strike hitting the back of the Welsh net just before half-time.
The South Africans weren’t to be denied, though, and five minutes into the third quarter they went further ahead with a second goal from Jade Mayne. Wales had a couple of penalty corners in the second half, but couldn’t convert.