Murray urges patience

By Emma Quayle
March 22, 2006

HOCKEYROOS coach Frank Murray will preach patience when his team takes on England in a semi-final today.

The Australians remained undefeated with a 3-0 win over South Africa in their final pool match yesterday, but Murray thought they made some "dumb" decisions and wants to see fewer midfield balls go to waste as they head towards the medal matches.

England conceded three second-half goals to lose 4-0 to New Zealand, in what was a battle for top spot in their pool. As the second-placed side, England must beat the Australians, who finished on top of the opposite pool, to get a shot at gold.

Suzie Faulkner scraped Australia's first score from a goal-line pack after 12 minutes yesterday, but the Hockeyroos struggled to penetrate the South African defence.

They manufactured more second-half space, mostly through Nikki Hudson, and scored late goals through Nicole Arrold and Angie Skirving, but Murray said his players needed to be smarter moving forward.

"I didn't think we played all that well, but certainly it was tough to get through their defence. It was quite congested, but we didn't have the patience and we made some pretty dumb decisions as to when we went in and we need to get that sorted out," he said.

Australia drew with England at a four-nations tournament in Argentina two months ago, then beat it for third place on penalty strokes.
