England womens hat-trick hero Crista Cullen was gutted to concede a last minute goal after giving the top seeds a three nil lead against Wales in their opening Commonwealth Games fixture in Group B.
The full-back unleashed three short corner drag flicks to steer England to victory but from a defensive point of view admitted she was ‘really gutted’ to concede late on.
Cullen said: “We worked so hard to make sure we didn’t let them in the circle. Credit to Sarah Thomas she’s a great player and she cut us open at times when we were a little bit exposed. We’ve just got take those bits out of our game and keep converting at the top.”But apart from allowing Wales to snatch a consolation goal Cullen, left, was pleased with the overall performance even though she accepted they should have scored more goals.
She said: “It was a brilliant performance. It’s always difficult going out first game on at 8.30 in the morning to get ourselves going. I thought we started really well, we could have converted more but that’s me being harsh.
“We had the opportunities and if we are going to push for the top spot in our pool then we have to make sure we start converting but it’s the start of the tournament and we have a performance to build on. To come away with a win is what we are here to do and we need to just keep churning them over,” added the Leicester defender.
Next up for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games bronze medalists is Canada and Cullen is aware how stern a test it will be but is confident they can get a positive result.
She said: “It’s always a tough game against Canada they’re athletic and fight for eveything. It’s an 11 o’clock match so it will be hot and humid. We’ve just got to take our game to them and I think they might struggle a bit.”
photo accreditation: chelmsfordblue (flickr)
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