Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018: Gareth Southgate the inspiration as England team spirit fuels title bid

Captain Alex Danson believes England’s counter-attacking play will be a key factor in the Vitality Hockey Women’s World Cup, which starts in London on Saturday.

The 16-team tournament, billed as the biggest women’s sporting event held in the UK, features a cracker on day one, when England take on India at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre at the Olympic Park in Stratford

It will be the first time the hockey showpiece has been hosted in England since the men’s World Cup in Willesden 32 years ago, with sell-out crowds of 10,000 expected for England’s matches. And Danson, 33, believes home support will only fuel her team to play their distinctive brand of attacking hockey, coupled with a rigid defence.

She told Standard Sport: “I believe, when we’re on our game, we will get the opportunity to kill teams on the counter and with our pace and that’s the hockey we love to play. It’s great fun and anyone who comes to watch will see that.”

Danson, who made her international debut as a 16-year-old in 2001, revealed she felt proud during England’s footballers run to the semi-finals at the recent World Cup. And she believes coach Gareth Southgate has reaped the rewards of building a team ethos.

The England forward added: “What the football did was generate this understanding that a team wins the tournament. It’s not the superstars and it’s not the most talented. It’s the best collection of people who fulfil their jobs and understand what it takes to get to that point and then are able to deliver.

“That’s what we’ve got so right in the past and what we’ve worked hard to get to now. It will be a collective team that makes results happen for us here.”

England, who will be able to call on eight of the British team who won gold in the 2016 Olympics, will be aiming to atone for a poor 2014 World Cup, when they finished 11th of 12 teams in the Hague.

That performance led to a change in personnel as Danny Kerry took on the head coaching role and turned England into consistent title contenders.

Danson said: “It feels absolutely light years away, but, my goodness, for anyone who has an interest in sporting journeys, 2014 was an incredibly difficult time. We can all learn lessons but you need to work out how to improve where you’ve come from and I think we’ve done that well.”

In a unanimous team decision, England will also be replicating the British strategy from Rio 2016 by turning off all social media 24 hours before their opening game.

Danson, has 301 caps for England and Great Britain and took the captain’s armband after the Rio games.

She said: “We weren’t sure before Rio but now we are here to focus on hockey. We want to be in our bubble and not share it with anybody over that time. We want to be ready and focused and it was an easy decision to come to.”

England will face tough competition from defending champions Holland, who have won the world title seven times.

The Vitality Hockey Women’s World Cup comes to London from July 21 to August 5. Tickets from £22 for a family of four at seetickets.com/hockeyworldcup