England women’s head coach Danny Kerry insists the pressure is still on for his side as they prepare for the upcoming Unibet EuroHockey Championships 2015 at London’s Olympic Park.

England have five bronze medals and a silver from the previous seven tournaments and have only been crowned European champions on one occasion – back in 1991.

Victory at the tournament will assure qualification for next summer’s Olympics but Great Britain have already booked their spot in Rio after recent success at the Hockey World League.

However, former King Edward VII School pupil Kerry says there is still plenty to play for when the tournament gets going, with England opening their competition with a clash against Auld Enemy Scotland on August 22.

“I think we have to be targeting a semi-final berth, I think it is going to be very difficult with some really tough group matches,” said Kerry.

“But I think we have to target a spot in the semi-finals and I think the girls are genuinely excited about the prospect of playing in front of a big home crowd.

“We always tend to do well in those circumstances and that feeds into the excitement of the girls.

“If we had to come here to win a gold medal then there would have been an incredible amount of pressure to reach that final.

“But there is still the pressure through expectation of playing at home in front of your home crowd and wanting to do well.

“I don’t think qualifying for Rio already changes the dynamic too much, we are a competitive bunch of players and we always want to do well.”

As well as their Pool B clash with Scotland, England also face the prospect of a repeat of 2013’s final when they take on Germany.

Two years ago it was the Germans who came out on top 2-0 in a penalty shootout but Kerry admits for now the focus is firmly on game one and picking up a victory against the Scots.

“I don’t think we can look past game one at the moment because Scotland have a very big programme and Scotland against England games are always very exciting,” he added. “The Netherlands will start as red hot favourites because they are the top ranked team and they will be the ones to watch.

“Then there are probably seven other teams that are vying for a semi-final spot so it think it is going to be a good and tight tournament.”

The Unibet EuroHockey Championships 2015, featuring both England’s men’s and women’ teams, takes place between 21-30 August at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Tickets available at www.eurohockey2015.co.uk