Commonwealth Games: Jones shoulders blame for yellow card as Wales lose 4-0 to Canada in the hockey

BY MAX HALL

Wimbledon Hockey Club midfielder Sarah Jones was quick to shoulder the blame after a yellow card late in today’s 4-0 defeat to Canada.

Jones and her Wales team-mates had started brightly against the higher-ranked Canadians at the Commonwealth Games but a flurry of cards after the second goal went in left Wales a mountain to climb.

“Three yellows – one of them a 10-minute yellow – two green cards and obviously, speaking for myself a lot of that is a bit of ill-discipline and some poor decision making,” Jones told the South London Press. “But we can’t afford to play 25 minutes of the game with nine or 10 players so, something that we definitely need to look at and hopefully we’ll put right next time.

“There was a lot of shoving in the first five or 10 minutes and they [the officials] warned us of that before giving out green cards so I actually think it was probably umpired relatively fairly. It was a relatively physical game. First game of the tournament people are always going to come out quite hard.”

Jones put in the sort of all-action display that will be familiar to Wimbledon fans as Wales began their campaign with a 4-0 defeat.

Wales had Canada on their heels in the first quarter with a rising drive from Jones forcing a good block from Rowan Harris in the Canada net.

But a fabulous solo effort from Hannah Haughn, midway through the second quarter, gave Canada the advantage, the player juggling the ball as she danced down the byline to the left of goal before finding the gap between Wales keeper Roseanne Thomas and her near post.

Wales continued to take the fight to their opponents after half time, Harris stretching out a glove to deny Amy Burton in the second minute but Canada doubled their lead moments later. Leah Wilkinson and Xenna Hughes left the ball for each other in the Welsh D, allowing Brienne Stairs to nip in and clip a rising effort past the exposed Thomas.

The game was over as a contest when Sara McManus fired home from a short corner against a Wales side down to 10 after a yellow card for Joanne Westwood.

Wales were still down to 10, this time for a card for Leah Wilkinson, when Stairs claimed her second, and Canada’s fourth, by spinning and deflecting home Karli Johansen’s short corner.

There was still time for Jones to join the ranks of Wales’ yellow-carded players, three minutes from time, after a body-check her namesake Vinnie might have been proud of.

In terms of her national team’s aims, Jones said it was not necessarily all about wins and losses for a team ranked 24th in the world.

“For us it’s about playing the Wales way throughout the games, rather than necessarily looking at a results-based finish,” she added.

Wales return to action today with another stiff test as they chase one of the two semi-final spots available in their five-team group. Next up, India.