One look at Andrew Hayward and you will be forgiven if you were to think that he is just an ordinary hockey player.
He jokes with his teammates, has an unassuming character and is charming especially to his lady fans.
But Andrew is a lethal weapon, especially when he lines up on the top of the semi circle.
And Malaysians who were glued to their television sets, watching the live telecast of the decisive match between Malaysia and New Zealand for the sole berth to the 2010 World Cup will not forget him easily.
For the 24 years old Auckland based player destroyed Malaysian aspirations of playing in the World Cup with two clinical strikes off penalty corners in the 57th and 60th minutes.
It took him just three minutes to douse the Malaysian fire that was burning for much of the match.
“We knew that the Malaysian first runner (Baljit) was good as he denied us in the preliminary round match,” said Andrew.
“So after Shaw had not had much success with the first four penalty corners, my task was to keep the ball low and put it past the keepers left. And it worked as I scored two.”
For his efforts, Andrew was named as the top scorer of the tournament with seven goals, piping his teammates Simon Child and Nicholas Wilson.
Andrew made his debut against Holland in January 2007 and has scored 13 international goals thus far, the two against Malaysia being the most memorable.
“Shaw is the first choice drag flicker for us but I aim to keep him on his toes,” said Andrew.
He jokes with his teammates, has an unassuming character and is charming especially to his lady fans.
But Andrew is a lethal weapon, especially when he lines up on the top of the semi circle.
And Malaysians who were glued to their television sets, watching the live telecast of the decisive match between Malaysia and New Zealand for the sole berth to the 2010 World Cup will not forget him easily.
For the 24 years old Auckland based player destroyed Malaysian aspirations of playing in the World Cup with two clinical strikes off penalty corners in the 57th and 60th minutes.
It took him just three minutes to douse the Malaysian fire that was burning for much of the match.
“We knew that the Malaysian first runner (Baljit) was good as he denied us in the preliminary round match,” said Andrew.
“So after Shaw had not had much success with the first four penalty corners, my task was to keep the ball low and put it past the keepers left. And it worked as I scored two.”
For his efforts, Andrew was named as the top scorer of the tournament with seven goals, piping his teammates Simon Child and Nicholas Wilson.
Andrew made his debut against Holland in January 2007 and has scored 13 international goals thus far, the two against Malaysia being the most memorable.
“Shaw is the first choice drag flicker for us but I aim to keep him on his toes,” said Andrew.
