Gunson stars in NZ victory

Whangarei's Ella Gunson shook off any rustiness with an impressive performance for the Black Sticks women in their second test match against South Korea, helping her side to a 2-1 win.
While the modest 21-year-old said she thought she had an "average" game at Whangarei's Rosvall ITM Hockey Centre last night, the midfielder was one of the standouts in the Kiwi side. She distributed the ball with good vision and chased down the aerial shots Korea made throughout the match.
"Korea love to play long aerial balls so we were kept on our toes in the midfield - always worrying about what kind of shot they were going to play," Gunson said.
The Massey University nutrition student was part of the side who comfortably defeated Korea 4-1 in Auckland on Saturday in the first of five test matches against Korea - part of the Malaysian Airlines Summer Series.
"These test matches are our first games since the Commonwealth Games in October. I felt a bit rusty on Saturday - but I felt more comfortable out there today [yesterday].
"We have been running and doing our fitness programmes over the summer and we started match training in January - but I was breathing pretty hard having to make those big runs down the field," Gunson said.
Following Saturday's game, both teams headed to Whangarei for last night's match and their third clash tomorrow night. Gunson said she was relishing the rare opportunity to play on her home turf.
"It's awesome to play at home - just look at the crowd that's come to watch," she said pointing to the packed grandstand.
In front of a crowd of approximately 1000 people, the Black Sticks Women flexed their muscles early in the game, dominating possession and sending Krystal Forgesson to deliver a field goal six minutes into the first half - thanks to a clever reverse stick pass from Northlander Stacey Michelsen.
Twenty minutes later, Korea evened up the scoreboard with Jong Eun Kim capitalising off a penalty corner with a lay-off left flick in the roof of the goal. Although the Black Sticks were confident at the start of the game, they lacked composure in the later stages of the first half, turning over possession when the Koreans applied pressure.
For most of the second half it was end-to-end play with both teams having chances to score but neither making the most of the opportunity.
The exception was a passage of play where Michelsen split the Korean defence and passed to Anita Punt on the base line. Punt then fired the ball across goal to Katie Glynn, who scored the second and final goal for the Kiwis.
Although it was their second win from two games, coach Mark Hager said he expected more from his side against Korea - ranked eighth in the world, one spot below the Black Sticks.
"Our performance was not at the level we played at on Saturday at all - it wasn't up to scratch and I would rate it about a two or three out of 10."
Over the next few days, the team would be working on ball retention, getting in front of the defenders and pushing up so they could dictate play, he added.
Hager commended the improved performance by the Korean women.
"I thought they played fantastic - they really took it to us and they were unlucky not to at least equalise," he said.
The Black Sticks Women play their third match against Korea tomorrow night at Rosvall ITM Stadium, at 5.30pm, followed by the Black Sticks second clash against Belgium at 7.30pm.