By Carl Markham, PA Sport

England's bid for a medal ended in glorious failure after bad luck and a host of missed chances ended their dreams.

The hosts had by far the better chances, especially in the first half, and in the second half saw the width of a post deny them a more than deserved equaliser from Surbiton's James Wallis.

Ironically, this was England's best performance of the tournament, full of attacking intent and invention.

However, they paid the ultimate price for one defensive mistake by Cannock midfielder Michael Johnson which allowed Emile Smith to score with South Africa's only real chance.

England could have - and probably should have - had a penalty stroke as early as the sixth minute when a long ball from midfield by Jon Wyatt picked out club-mate Mark Pearn.

He should have done better with his shot after going past goalkeeper Chris Hibbert but nevertheless his strike was stopped by a South African body when it appeared to be going in but only a short corner was awarded.

From the resulting set-piece both Wallis and Craig Parnham had chances to score but found Hibbert at his best in this play-off for a semi-final place against Australia.

Two minutes later Jermome Goudie deflected over Wyatt's left-wing free-hit as England enjoyed early possession.

In the 16th minute Pearn, so often the catalyst for England in this tournament, jinked his way down the left but his pull back just evaded the unmarked Danny Hall.

And after numerous other attempts England were made to pay for not being clinical enough in front of goal when, in the 29th minute, Johnson lost the ball in the centre of the pitch.

Gregg Clark quickly transferred to Greg Nicol and he squared for Smith to sweep in.

Johnson tried to atone for his error just before the interval but his reverse-stick shot across goal went the wrong side of the post.

Two minutes into the second half goalkeeper Simon Mason was forced into a good double save, first with his feet from Justin King's penalty corner flick and then with a hand from Nicol's follow-up shot.

And he followed that with an even better save at another penalty corner in the 52nd minute.

With 13 minutes to go Wyatt saw his penalty corner shot turned around the post by Hibbert and from the resulting ball back into play James Wallis hit a post and the rebound fell invitingly for Duncan Woods but he panicked, swiped and missed the ball completely.

They could have been put out of the game completely when a penalty stroke was awarded against them after captain Parnham stopped Mike Cullen's goalbound shot but Nicol put his shot weakly wide.

At the other end Hall had the chance to snatch an equaliser with just three minutes remaining but he could not get on the end of Pearn's drag across goal.

Midfielder Billy Waugh said there could be no excuses for England's failure to convert chances into goals as they lost 1-0 to South Africa and failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

With the carrot of a match against Australia up for grabs in the last four, the hosts produced their most attacking performance of the tournament.

But it was a defensive mistake by Cannock midfielder Michael Johnson which led to the only goal of the play-off, scored by Emile Smith.

"It is disappointing because we had a lot of chances first half," said the Surbiton midfielder.

"We let them back into the game second half and we had a lot of chances which we missed - although they missed a few as well.

"We have been creating chances all through the tournament and have not been putting them away and at this level you can't afford to do that.

"You only get a handful of chances against decent sides and if you can't take them you are going to lose and that is what we did today.

"It is not pointing the finger at anyone, it is the whole team. We missed chances all over."

Devastated goalkeeper Simon Mason won his 100th cap for England but claimed he would have traded them all in to reverse the 1-0 defeat to South Africa which ended their medal hopes.

The Reading number one, who has also made 49 appearances for Great Britain, could not believe that the players had created so many chances in a one-sided match and not had anything to show for them.

"I think that is one of the most - if not the most - disappointing result I have had in my international career," said Mason after easily England's best performance of the competition, full of flowing and incisive attacking hockey.

"I am sure a lot of the guys feel the same. We have worked very hard to get here and today we missed a hatful of chances by three inches.

"We made one mistake at the back which cost us a goal but even at that point I had no doubt in my mind that we would knock two or three goals in and everything would be fine - and then it wasn't.

"I can't start to put into words the disappointment I feel. I would trade all my 100 England and 49 Great Britain caps to change that result."

Coach Malcolm Wood admitted his side missed a hatful of chances but he was proud of the performance they put in.

"We should have killed the game off in the first 20 minutes - end of story - and there would have been no way back for South Africa.

"But this dreadful thing that we are involved in called sport jumps up and bites you sometimes and I thought that was what happened today.

"It was a fantastic first half performance and I couldn't ask for any more. It was a bad day at the office."

Wood thought they might have missed the presence of Canterbury's penalty corner specialist - who is out for up to six weeks with a hamstring tear sustained in yesterday's victory over Wales - although he refused to use that as an excuse.

"We missed Dave, not having the threat at the top of the D for the drag flick from corners and you could say him being there might have changed things despite missing open play chances," he added.