27 Jun 2011

Black Sticks women beat Australia at Champions Trophy

7:29 am on 27 June 2011

The New Zealand women's hockey team have upset Australia 3-2 in a nail biting clash at the Champions Trophy in Amsterdam with goals from Katie Glynn, Krystal Forgesson and Cathryn Finlayson sealing the victory.

Following their 1-nil loss to Germany in their opening game at the tournament the Black Sticks had vowed to start with aggression against their trans-tasman foes and did with Glynn dribbling into space before slamming the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the goal to open the scoring.

A minute later Australia were once again on the defence when Finlayson sprinted down the right hand side, crossed to Glynn who then teed up the perfect shot for Forgesson who fired it into the net to give the Black Sticks a 2-nil lead at halftime.

The second half had all the excitement you would expect for a typical trans-Tasman clash, keeping the 4,000 strong crowd on the edge of their seats.

The Black Sticks stretched their lead to 3-0 in the 44th minute when Finlayson found herself in front of an open goal and tapped it in from three metres out.

With all eyes on the clock, Alana Millington and Finlayson were shown yellow cards and with the Black Sticks down to just nine players, Australia took advantage scoring two quick goals.

Australia then piled on the pressure in the final five minutes, but the Black Sticks held on to win the thrilling encounter.

The Black Sticks can book their place in the semi-finals with a win in their next game against The Netherlands on Wednesday morning.