10 July 2004	Saturday	21 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

DARWIN, July 9: Australia suffered their worst defeat in almost two years after Korea handed them a 4-0 thumping in third hockey Test in Darwin on Friday.

Two goals in each half propelled the Koreans to a deserved victory as they produced a significant improvement on the form shown in first two matches.

The loss was Kookaburras' biggest in nearly two years, when an under strength team lost 6-1 to the Netherlands at the 2002 Champions Trophy. Kookaburras coach Barry Dancer was obviously unhappy with the effort of his team.

"It was a disappointing performance but Korea certainly produced a big improvement from the first two matches, as we expected they would. It was the best performance of the series so far from either team, he said.

"Once again I was disappointed with our inability in our front half to maintain our basics and decision making under pressure. "We also weren't able to cope with fast break, we didn't see them off very well and our defence inside the circle gave away unnecessary penalty corners."

Korea showed more determination and resolve and made Australia fight for possession across the pitch. Kookaburras' slower response and untidy ball movement combined to mount pressure on defence, which was eventually breached with two penalty corner conversions in ninth and 33rd minutes.

Until 45-minute mark, all of Korea's goals in the series had been scored from penalty corners, but that changed with two strikes in quick succession after the break to give visitors a huge lead.

Both goals were scored from good passing inside the circle to put Kookaburras defence under pressure. Kookaburras had two good goal scoring chances in second half but Korean goalkeeper repelled the ball to safety.

The final match of the series was to be played on Saturday. -PPI