Sandeep wants at least 12 more goals to his tally

Playing with excellent touch and rhythm, ace Indian drag-flicker Sandeep Singh is keen to add at least a dozen more goals in his career tally by the end of ongoing hockey Olympic qualifying tournament.

- Olympic hockey qualifier: Clinical India maul Italy 8-1

Sandeep started the pre-Olympic campaign with 118 international goals to his credit and has already scored four goals in India's two victories so far.

"This is a personal goal I have set for myself. I want to score 12 goals in the tournament so that I can finish with 130 goals. I have scored four today and hopefully will score a few more in the coming matches," Sandeep, who now has scored four goals from two matches, said.

"As the tournament progresses, we will face tougher opponents and I believe we are moving in the right direction," he added.

When asked about converting three short-corners compared to one he scored against Singapore, he explained, "We tried a few variations yesterday but it didn't give us desired results. Today, I went for the old fashioned drag-flick and it yielded results."

The defence still looks a bit shaky and Sandeep admitted that.

"When you are hit on the counter, there are bound to be jittery moments. But we learn from each and every match, we are learning about our mistakes.

"Certainly while saving penalty corners, we need to be a bit more careful and certainly we will keep that in mind for the next match."

Indian coach Michael Nobbs stressed on peaking at the right time.

"We want that we should be at our peak during the final stage. We are improving with each and every match and today Italy played much better than what they did yesterday. We would like to take one game at a time and plan accordingly.

"Personally, I am happy that so many players are scoring goals.The key is to have players who can score goals as that's how you win matches."