Lily Owsley rescues England with late goal against India in Hockey World Cup

Six years ago Lily Owsley was watching inside the Olympic Park when Team GB won bronze in the women’s hockey event and further garlanded a glittering, gleaming summer for British sport. Now she may have played her part in continuing a similar feelgood factor, this time wearing an England shirt, and the intervention could hardly have been more timely.

England were nearing a surprise defeat to India on the opening day of the World Cup and an expectant capacity crowd in Stratford looked likely to leave deflated. Owsley’s opportunistic finish six minutes before the end changed that and, while this was not the result Danny Kerry’s side wanted, the timing of the strike ensured they keep their momentum in a tournament for which their hopes are sky high.

This was the kind of glorious sporting day this corner of east London has made its speciality. There is still something fuzzily reassuring about international events that take place here; this time it was pink-clad Hockey Makers offering the welcome, London Pride filling the pint glasses and an array of visiting club groups adding to the chatter among a crowd that, by the time England’s game began, had hit a sellout 10,000. The wave of optimism around Gareth Southgate’s football team had sparked a willingness to be delighted once again but that went in tandem with something else, too.

“Our vision is to become a nation where hockey matters,” the England Hockey chief executive, Sally Munday, had written in the official event guide. It is becoming that way, and that is largely because the success of both England and Great Britain is impossible to ignore. England won the women’s EuroHockey championship at this venue in 2015; the following year Great Britain became Olympic champions so memorably, both triumphs coming after defeating the Netherlands on penalties, and such cumulative excellence gives the sport an opportunity it has rarely had before.

That is why it was so important England, ranked second in the world, did not falter against an India team they had beaten 6-0 in the Commonwealth Games bronze medal match three months ago. After a fast start they became frustrated by their opponents’ intense press and, by the time Neha Goyal scored for India 25 minutes in, the support had been reduced to near-silence. It took a ferocious response after half-time for England to turn the tide and when Owsley finally made her mark, diverting the ball into an open goal after Ellie Watton had done superbly to salvage the latest in a seemingly endless stream of squandered penalty corners, the reward for a performance of growing conviction was just.

“Instinctive, desperate, whatever you want to call it,” said Owsley, who scored in both of those finals against the Netherlands and, for a 23-year-old, has had a remarkably eventful career, of her leveller. “There was no minute in the game where I didn’t believe the goal was coming. They are a strong side and implemented some clever tactics against us but I felt our fitness and athleticism really began to show in the second half. We’re so happy to have a point on the board; there’s a big difference between losing the first game and getting any kind of result. These tournaments are all about momentum.”

It was enough to see England applauded off warmly and the tournament’s organisers could reflect on a spectacle that, starting earlier in the day when Germany outclassed South Africa en route to a 3-1 win that flattered their opposition, did the sport a service. It helps when clarity and candour are welcomed with such open arms. While VAR has caused ructions within football, partly due to a lack of communication with supporters about decision-making, hockey’s video referral system was shown in all its glory here.

Teams are allowed one appeal per match, while the umpire can request a second opinion on goal decisions. When England, so dominant early on, thought they had earned a penalty stroke after Grace Balsdon’s penalty corner stuck an opponent’s foot near the line, India immediately requested a second look. To the backing of a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-style suspense track, the video official got to work while the PA announcer explained exactly what was going on: that India felt the ball had struck a stick first and it was not the defender’s body that had prevented the goal. Their claim was upheld; justice had been carried out with an entire stadium of spectators feeling fully in the loop.

England made an appeal of their own relating to Goyal’s goal but that was swiftly ruled out; the ease and openness of the process was notable all afternoon and added to the fresh, fast-moving feel of the entire event. Other bursts of audio included lines from Shampoo’s 1994 hit Trouble whenever a player received a green card; frippery, perhaps, but on balance good-natured and unobtrusive.

More of the same might give those watching this time round the impetus to follow in Owsley’s footsteps. “In that moment I felt a million miles away from them; they seemed like superhumans,” she said of that 2012 squad, who would soon become friends and teammates. If England gather themselves to go all the way, it may be a fitting description.