READING defender Liam Sanford was voted man-of-the-match when England defeated New Zealand 2-0 in their World Cup match in India on Monday.

He was pleased with the team's performance, commenting: “We learnt from our previous games and knew when we were on the ball we had to keep it and the team did that really well. But there’s lots we can still improve on."

In their previous game, England had beaten Ireland 4-2, a match which saw Sandford up against his Reading teammate, Stuart Loughrey. Former Blues forward Chris Cargo scored Ireland's opening goal.

England went on to secure a brilliant 3-2 win over Olympic champions and World No. 2 Argentina yesterday (Wednesday) to book their place in the semi-finals on Saturday against Germany or Belgium. The final is on Sunday, with the matches live on BT Sport.

It was the first time England had beaten Argentina in 20 years and 36 years at a World Cup.

Having been relegated from the Premier Division, Reading are not involved in the indoor league which starts this weekend.

They will have to wait until January 5 for their opening Division One matches against Olton & West Warwicks and Harleston Magpies.

The following day they take on Loughborough Students and Ipswich.

Reading Women will also be in action on the same weekend, but their fixtures have yet to be confirmed.

Reading men 2nds have edged their way into the third round of England Hockey's Tier 2 championship by beating Basingstoke on Sunday.

After trailing 2-1 at half time, they hit back to draw level at 3-3 at the end of 70 minutes before going on to win the penalty shoot-out 5-3.