Wales thrash Scotland to reach World Cup qualifying semi-final

Wales progressed to the semi-finals of Hockey World Cup qualifying after a stunning 5-0 win over Scotland.

Danny Newcombe's side came into the game needing to win by three clear goals to advance and they wasted no time as Jack Pritchard tapped home Gareth Furlong's perfectly threaded pass on four minutes.

Fred Newbold doubled the lead with a well worked penalty corner on ten minutes.

With two and a half minutes left of the first half, Dale Hutchinson's shot was deflected home by Rhys Bradshaw to take a 3-0 lead.

In the third quarter Newbold grabbed his second of the game with a rebound from a penalty corner and Sam Welsh made it 5-0.

A goalless fourth quarter saw Wales secure the margin needed.

Wales' win sets up a clash with Pool B winners Ireland on Friday and sees Scotland's hopes of a first Hockey World Cup qualification ended.

Ireland secured top spot in Pool B with a 4-1 win over Poland.

Wales came into the match in bottom spot of Pool A after a 2-2 draw with Chile and a heavy defeat by France.

Despite the huge task ahead of Wales, they controlled the game from start to finish to keep their hopes alive of back to back World Cup, qualifications.

Hosts Chile and France drew 3-3 in the other game in the pool on Wednesday which saw France progress as group winners on goal difference.

Chile finish bottom of the pool despite going unbeaten in their three games.

Player of the match Fred Newbold said: "I think for us it was about the reset.

"We had a really rough game against France, we didn't quite get the things right, but we knew that there was enough stuff in there that we were positive that we knew if we played our game and took it into today we were there and it was about fight.

"We've done it before against Ireland when we needed a result and we've got that dog in us, and we stuck to the end, it was fantastic.

"We know the tournament isn't over, two more games and we've given ourselves a shot so that's the important thing.

"Keep doing what we're doing, stay with each other and we've got every chance."