RAF Coach Full Of Praise For England's World Cup Star

Senior Aircraftman Liam Sanford has received praise from his RAF coach ahead of England’s World Cup semi-final against Belgium.

The hockey star has been impressive during England’s run to the final four and his coach back at the Air Force, Flight Lieutenant Tom Godding, is hugely proud of his performances.

Speaking of SAC Sanford’s international progression, Flight Lieutenant Godding used words such as “fantastic” and “impressive”.

He said: “Liam keeps growing and growing as a player. He burst onto the international hockey scene about two years ago and he’s been fantastic ever since.

“The men, it’s fair to say, have under-performed in recent years. They’ve put that behind them now, particularly this year starting with the bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games which Liam was a huge part of.

“They are obviously into the semi-finals of the World Cup and Liam’s played a huge part in that which is all the more impressive seeing as he came into the tournament off the back of six weeks of injury.

"To do that and then play at the level he is playing and the intensity he is playing with, especially with the standard of teams at this World Cup is really impressive.

“RAF hockey is very proud of what he is doing out in India at the moment.”

Sanford has been proudly representing the Air Force from day one of his international career and Godding is impressed with the effect the player continues to have for RAF Hockey.

He said: “Liam’s involvement with RAF Hockey has been great. He came with us to Japan at the start of this year and he comes to as many training camps as the international programme allows.

"When he comes along, he really adds a good sense of perspective for the players so in terms of his contribution to training, it’s massive.

“It’s more than that isn’t it? It’s about what he does for the sport and through sport for the RAF. He raises the profile of both RAF Hockey and the RAF as well. For me as the men’s hockey manager, it’s great.

“Any budding young hockey players out there looking for a career might just consider the RAF now.

“That can only help me as the RAF men’s manager and can only help the Air Force as we use RAF Hockey to develop our people which we’ve been doing ever since the association began. It’s massive. It has a huge knock-on effect and long may it last.

Speaking about this weekend’s World Cup culmination, Goddard pulled no punches. He wants an England win and explained what effect that would have on the sport.

He said: “If you win something like that, it creates such a feel-good factor around the sport. Hockey is such a brilliant vehicle for sport in itself for all sorts of unique little reasons. It’s one of the most played sports in the UK.

“The great thing about it is there’s actually quite an even split between males and females whereas a lot of sports are quite one-sided in terms of gender.

“I’m obviously quite biased but if the men win the World Cup, that would send shockwaves throughout the sport and have a massive positive effect for the sport in general.”