Indian supporters cheer heroes towards final spot

England's men's hockey team saw their gold medal dream dashed on a night of drama and controversy in Delhi as hosts India kept their nerve to claim a place in the Commonwealth Games final.

By The Newsroom

Published 13th Oct 2010, 01:01 BST

The roar from 19,000 wildly excited fans at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium when Shivendra Singh fired home the winning penalty hit to give his side a 5-4 win from the spot after a 3-3 draw could probably be heard back in Britain.

But the extraordinary theatre came as no consolation for the shattered England players who had relinquished a 3-1 lead in normal time and left the field complaining bitterly about alleged infringements by the Indian players.

They claimed India captain Raj Pal Singh had raised his stick dangerously prior to Saravanjit Singh's equaliser, and that Shivendra Singh's winning penalty had been illegally pushed into the net.

Captain Barry Middleton said: "We work very hard for these tournaments and we give up jobs for it and we come here to win medals. Little things like that don't help us. We had our chance to win but a couple of big ones went against us."