Former Harleston Magpie Richard Alexander insists Britain showed their resolve after holding off a Pakistan fightback to get their Olympic hockey campaign up and running.

Former Harleston Magpie Richard Alexander has been battling for Britain this week in the hockey stadium at the Beijing Olympics.

It has been mixed luck so far with Britain beating Pakistan 4-2 - the first Olympic victory over that country in 56 years - in the

opening pool game but losing to Holland 1-0 yesterday.

They must now beat the teams below them in the table to stand a chance of progressing. On Tuesday they face defending champions Australia in their pool.

Defender Alexander, 25, said Britain showed their resolve after holding off a Pakistan fightback to get their Olympic campaign up and running, writes Daniel Schofield.

Jason Lee's men had stormed into a three-goal lead only for Pakistan to hit back after the break when British skipper Ben Hawes was

sin binned before Matt Daly sealed a 4-2 win.

Britain had been in an identical position in the Setanta Trophy in June only to press the self-destruct button as they squandered a

three-goal advantage but Alexander (pictured) believes the squad has learnt from previous mistakes. "The most pleasing thing for me is that we played them in the Setanta Trophy recently and we let the 3-0 lead slip. They got it back to 3-2 but we did not panic.

"We kept playing our game and got the fourth to kill them off.

"They are a team that once they get on a roll they are one of the best teams in the world. We had to defend really hard but we never let our heads drop. It was very important to get that first win."

Pakistan had not even had a touch of the ball before Britain opened the scoring through James Tindall and grabbed a second on 11 minutes through Rob Moore.

And just seven minutes before the break and Britain were out of sight, Ashley Jackson this time benefitting from Alexander's penalty corner. But after half-time it was a different story as first Shakeel Abbasi and then Muhammad Waqas struck to create a nervous last 10 minutes before Daly had the last word.