Commonwealth Games 2010: England miss out on bronze

2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
Venue: Delhi, India Dates: 3-14 October 2010 Coverage: Comprehensive live coverage across BBC TV, radio, online, BBC Red Button, mobile and BBC iPlayer services. Find full coverage details here. And a full schedule of events here.

More penalty heartache for hockey men

England's men's hockey team missed out on the Commonwealth Games bronze medal after they were beaten on penalties by New Zealand on the final day in Delhi.

The game finished 3-3 after extra time with Simon Mantell's hat-trick for England cancelling out goals from Dean Couzins, Nick Haig and Hayden Shaw.

Despite chances for both sides in extra time the match headed into a shoot-out.

Adam Dixon was the unfortunate player with his penalty saved by Kyle Pontifex and Shea McAleese sealed the victory.

It was the second consecutive defeat on penalties for England, who had lost their semi-final against India in the same fashion but had gone through the entire tournament without losing a match in regulation time.

We had chances to take it but their goalie had a great game. We need to use this emotion and understand why we lost

Simon Mantell

Mantell, who became England's leading Commonwealth Games goalscorer of all time with 10 goals, struggled to find the words to express his emotions.

"There's not many words to describe it. I'm absolutely gutted right now. Four years ago a similar thing happened against Malaysia in a game we probably should have won. But today was tough.

"We didn't start particularly well but we put in an awesome fight and just played our hockey. We had chances to take it but their goalie had a great game. We need to use this emotion and understand why we lost."

Captain Barry Middleton added: "We dominated most parts of the game. We were better than New Zealand. It's just that we couldn't put our chances away. To lose in a penalty shoot-out twice in three days is really unfortunate."

In the final, Luke Doerner and Jason Wilson scored twice each to help Australia on their way to destroying India 8-0.