EuroHockey Championship: England beat Ireland 3-0 in first Group B game

England opened their EuroHockey campaign with a 3-0 win over Ireland in Monchengladbach.

Grace Balsdon converted a penalty stroke with Tess Howard and Hannah Martin scoring the other goals.

England will face Germany on Sunday in their second Pool game while Ireland take on Scotland on Saturday.

It was a bright start by Ireland as they produced some quality hockey that allowed Naomi Carroll a couple of opportunities.

After a run across the circle her first effort was blocked and then after controlling an overhead from Roisin Upton, the Limerick forward forced Sabbie Heesh into a smart save.

Some outstanding play from Hannah McLoughlin saw her release Niamh Carey who cut into the circle and again saw Heesh make a good stop.

It was England though who made the breakthrough on the scoreboard. From their first circle penetration, Izzy Petter was fouled by Ayeisha McFerran and Balsdon converted the penalty stroke.

England doubled their lead in the second quarter when the Irish defence was caught ball watching in the circle and Holly Hunt's pass was touched into the net by the attentive Howard.

Only McFerran stopped England increasing their lead as Ireland struggled before the interval to create any meaningful pressure.

Ireland replaced McFerran with Lizzie Murphy at half-time and she was immediately called into action at the start of the third quarter with a couple of saves from penalty corners as England sought to put the game out of Ireland's reach.

The Irish rarely threatened but Charlotte Beggs saw her reverse stick effort saved by Heesh and the England goalkeeper also saw off the danger from Ireland's first penalty corner of the game.

The third goal duly came early in the final quarter. Created by the impressive Hunt, her shot wasn't cleanly saved by Murphy and the ball dropped to Martin to tap into the unguarded goal from close range.