England eventually broke through the Austrian defences to record their first win of the competition, a 3-0 success to lift them to three points in the men’s EuroHockey Championship.

The first half featured everything except a goal with England on top but found Mateusz Szymczyk in strong form and Fabian Unterkircher taking a couple of corner efforts off the line. 

It took until the 36th minute for the breakthrough, a stunning shot from the top of the circle when surrounded by red-shirts. They got extra insurance when Nick Bandurak’s disguised drag went into the path of James Albery on the slide to turn in a crucial goal.

Bandurak then clipped in the third following an end-to-end move with two minutes to go.

Player of the match Nick Park said of the result: “We were obviously bitterly disappointed with yesterday to be 3-1 up and then let it slip. We definitely wanted a reaction. To be fair, they put in a strong defence in the first half and we really struggled in the first half. In the second half, we came into our own.

As for the tournament chances, they now face a big game against Spain: “A lot of the boys have been in this position before and we back ourselves against anyone in the world at the moment. 

“Germany have put an amazing tournament so far. The stadium is great; it is massive in here and I hope we can keep progressing and make it to the semi-finals!”