And if it wasn’t exactly easy, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as the story would make it out to be. England were in control throughout the match, and yes, at the end the fans in the grandstand were singing “hockey’s come home”. In fact, the team had received some good luck messages from Leah Williamson and the other Lionesses in the morning. “They told us how some of our previous teams had inspired them in the past and that they hoped they would now return the favor by helping to inspire us to do that,” midfielder Flora Peel said. “And they sure did.” The win went some way to making up for the losses suffered by England’s women’s cricket and netball teams, who both lost in the bronze medal play-offs earlier in the day. “It seems like women’s sport is really taking off this summer,” Peel said, “and now it’s about taking advantage of all those opportunities. “You see what the Lionesses win will do for them, and hopefully it will do the same for us, and the netballers and cricketers, even though they didn’t go to their final this time. The more women’s sport as a whole can build on this momentum the better for all of us.” England players celebrate their gold at the final whistle. Photo: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian Peel will hate this being mentioned here, but she happens to be the great-granddaughter, five times removed, of Sir Robert Peel. There is a statue of him just down the road from the stadium. They’re not going to put another one of her next, even if she’s a college graduate. But he played brilliantly and had a hand in both goals. Both came in the second quarter. Hunt scored the first, off the center of Pil. Howard got the second after making an interception, which was passed back to Shona McCullin. He played the ball to Peel, whose shot was expertly deflected into the net by Howard. It meant that Australia, who have won the title five times, had conceded more goals in those four minutes of play than in the rest of the competition. “Australia are so good we knew we had to compete,” England’s Lily Owsley said. “Our coach told us to take the first swing and keep swinging, and we did, because if you sit out a team like Australia, they’re going to keep coming at you.” Australia tried to do that in the second half but couldn’t find a way past Maddie Hinch. There were only 19 seconds to play when she was finally beaten by Rosie Malone from the penalty corner. The crowd had just started singing their version of the Three Lions. “I laughed and thought ‘I’m going to run onto the field to celebrate here’ when I heard that,” Peel said. “And then the goal went in and I thought, ‘Oh no, they screwed it up!’” ‘Hockey’s come home’… The crowd started singing an adapted version of the Three Lions before the final whistle. Photo: Darren England/EPA England had been in this situation before. In the 2014 final they were leading 1-0 when Australia equalized with 11 seconds to play and then won the game on penalties. The memory of that defeat still haunts England captain Hollie Pearne-Webb. She spoke before the match about how she was determined not to let anything like this happen again. And this time her team held on while the crowd counted down the final seconds. As soon as they got to zero, Laura Unsworth hit the ball out and the celebrations began. Or they did for everyone except Pearne-Webb, who intended to go shake hands with every Australian coach and player before being lured away by her team to join in with their song and dance. The team had not won a medal on home soil since the 2015 European Championships. This was the sweetest memory of the players’ experience at the Tokyo Olympics last year, when England’s bronze-winning team were unable to celebrate with their friends and families because none of them were allowed to travel. This GB team will be back together soon, with one eye on the next Olympics in Paris, and even greater glory.
