Hockey: NZ into final despite discipline issues

Stephen Jenness. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand men's hockey team have secured a spot in the London Cup tournament final following a hard fought 3-2 win over Belgium at Chiswick, England, today.

The Black Sticks maintained their 100 percent winning record at the tournament but it was not an easy or even pretty affair.

Goals from Stephen Jenness and Matt L'Huillier were balanced out by a brace of strikes from Belgium's Tom Boon before a last minute rocket from Nick Wilson secured the result.

New Zealand coach Shane McLeod suggested his players made life difficult for themselves due to poor discipline.

Steve Edwards was sinbinned for a period in the first half as was captain Phil Burrows after the break because of a mistimed tackle.

McLeod said poor team discipline was something his team needed to address.

"To win two out of two games is really pleasing, but it was a lot closer than we would have liked," he said.

"I'm happy that we created more scoring opportunities today, but we need to work on converting these into goals."

Burrows' sinbinning came eight minutes from fulltime and in his absence Belgium took the opportunity to score from a penalty corner and level the scores at 2-2.

He returned to the field with just 3min remaining and with him came a sheer determination to make amends as Burrows busied himself at the heart of a flurry of New Zealand attacks.

The rewards, and relief, came for Burrows when the ball fell loose to Nick Wilson at the top of the circle and the young striker duly dispatched a blast into the back of the net.

New Zealand complete their pool programme in the four-nation event against England tomorrow morning (NZT) ahead of the final on Sunday.

New Zealand 3 (Stephen Jenness, Matt L'Huillier, Nick Wilson) Belgium 2. Halftime: 2-1.

- NZPA