Women's Hockey World Cup 2018: England will improve against United States, insists Lily Owsley

England's saviour Lily Owsley believes her side can build momentum after a stuttering start to their World Cup campaign.

Owsley netted a late equaliser to seal a 1-1 draw in front of a capacity 10,500-strong crowd at Lee Valley Hockey Centre.

England take on the United States on Wednesday night after their shock defeat to Ireland.

Owsley said: “These tournaments are all about momentum, you snowball it and take the good out of games like these. We will learn from this game, we showed a lot of character, and I’m sure we’ll carry it through to the next match.”

England coach Danny Kerry said his players had been overawed by the reception of the crowd and the level of expectation on them at their home event, two years after eight of the squad won Olympic gold for Great Britain in Rio de Janeiro.

Of that expectation, he said: “We just tried to talk about it rather than make it an issue. It’s new and it’s different for us.”

And he called on his players to feed off the crowd as they did late in the India game. He added: “Everyone really got behind us and fed off the urgency and intent of what we were trying to do.”