Wilkinson’s Winner Sends Wales Into Hockey World League Semi-Finals

Wales qualified for the Women’s Hockey World League Round 2 semi-finals with a stunning 2-1 victory over Kazakhstan in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Leah Wilkinson bagged the winner with just four minutes left after Joanne Westwood’s first-half goal had been cancelled out.

The Welsh kept their nerves to book a spot in Saturday’s semi-finals where a place in July’s World League semi-finals, a qualification event for the next World Cup, will be at stake.

Swansea’s Westwood struck in the 19th minute to give coach Kevin Johnson’s squad the lead.

Keeper Rose Thomas made a couple of saves as Kazakhstan pressed for the equaliser.

And the Wimbledon player was finally beaten for the first time since the opening game when Symbat Sabazova levelled.

But on 56 minutes Holcombe ace Wilkinson found the net and Wales ran out deserved winners in their first appearance at this stage.

Johnson said: “We are obviously delighted to be in a semi-final.

“When we started the tournament to be in a position to get the maximum ranking points possible was key for us.

“Kazakhstan didn’t make life easy for us. It was very difficult and on top of that we didn’t make life easy for ourselves.

“If we had got a couple of goals early on when we had a lot of pressure things might have been easier.

“But Kazakhstan to their credit stuck in it and they are always a threat on the counter-attack and scored a penalty corner.

“But it was fantastic that we delivered under pressure in the final quarter with a really coolly taken penalty goal.

“We are really delighted to be in the semi-final and anything can happen in a semi-final.

“We wanted to give ourselves a chance to have a shot at World League 3 potentially and now we have got one game to have that shot.

“We are just looking forward, as always, to the next challenge.”

 

In the earlier games, Ireland thrashed Singapore 10-0 and Italy, who topped Wales’ pool, beat Hong Kong 7-0.

Hosts Malaysia were set to meet Thailand in the other tie to decide Saturday’s semi-final line-up.