England put up perhaps their best performance of the Men’s World Championship so far against Canada but ultimately went down 4-11 to the #2 world ranked side.

With little more than a quarter to play there was only three goals in the game before Canada took the last four goals to pull away as England had eyes on tomorrow’s important play-off match.

Sean Goldsmith led the scoring again for England with two, while Tim Collins and Drew Bickerton both found the net in an enjoyable watch on Monday evening in San Diego.

England were able to outshoot their opponents 21-18 and the 11 goals conceded was the joint fewest ever allowed by England against Canada at a World Championship which was characteristic of a much more proactive defence that caused numerous turnovers and mistakes from Canada throughout.

England were able to dictate the pace of the game for large parts, keeping it a tight battle and it was only a Ryan Lee double last in Q1 that had Canada ahead after Collins had cancelled out Dhane Smith’s opener.

Goldsmith got his first and the first of Q2 to close the gap before Canada hit some form putting up four answered either side of the half to begin to assert their dominance.

But England got a second wind, Goldsmith bullying his way to goal for an exceptional finish, keeping Canada’s Graeme Hossack at bay despite some close attention.

It was then Bickerton’s turn to score an eye catcher and maybe the goal of the day as he dodged inside from behind to take flight and score with the crease dive to make things 4-7.

England did then have a couple more spells of possession before Josh Bryne scored against the run of plan and then Canada racked up three goals without reply to end the game as England’s plans firmly began to switch to Tuesday’s crunch match against Puerto Rico.

Tuesday’s first round play-off against the #12 seeds takes place at 1pm PDT/9pm BST live on ESPN Player ,which should England win, will book them a place in the quarter-finals against either Australia or Netherlands.

Box Score: England – Canada (1-3; 2-6; 4-8; 4-11)

England Scorers: Sean Goldsmith (2G), Drew Bickerton (1G), Tim Collins (1G)
Canada Scorers: Josh Byrne (3G 2A), Connor Fields (2G 1A), Ryan Lee (2G), Dyson Williams (2G), Dhane Smith (1G 1A), Jeff Teat (1G), Wesley Berg (1A)