Hockey: Great Britain coach wants more attacking style

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Coach Jason Lee is keen to break away from the conservative British hockey style of the past 10 years as he builds towards next year's Olympics.

Lee, in charge for just five weeks, said he was happy with the progress he had seen in his time with the Great Britain team in Hong Kong and Auckland.

"But I'm not so pleased with the way we are playing," Lee said before tonight's third test against New Zealand in Mt Maunganui.

"The Jason Lee way is not much different, but combining players from three countries can make it difficult.

"We are trying to bring a more attacking flow. Attacking means scoring. There are things we want to try and do differently in this game."

Lee admitted he was unhappy with some aspects of his team's play in the 3-1 victory in the second test on Sunday, especially in having two players yellow-carded.

"That was to our detriment. The tackles which led to those cards were not malicious but our players have to learn to work at a high intensity without giving away fouls."

New Zealand coach Kevin Towns said he intended to discuss some issues with the umpires before tonight's game.

"We still need to play our game and do things we set out to do at the start of the series," said Towns.

"Our guys can deal with it [the things which upset them on Sunday]. Two can play at that sort of thing but it's not going to take you anywhere."

Towns hopes centre-forward Phil Burrows will play his first game of the five-test series tonight.

Only James Nation is not in contention. New Zealand won the first test 2-1.

Likely NZ team: Kyle Pontifex, Hayden Shaw, Dion Gosling, Dharmesh Puna, Simon Towns, Blair Hopping, Ryan Archibald, Darren Smith, Umesh Parag, Phil Burrows, Gareth Brooks. Substitutes: Paul Woolford, Bryce Collins, Dean Couzins, Wayne McIndoe, David Kosoof.