England do not deserve to be ranked any higher than sixth in the world unless they start regularly competing at the top table, admits head coach Jason Lee.

The newly-crowned European Champions are still digesting their surprise 5-3 victory over Germany in Amstelveen, as they gear up to face the five leading sides in world hockey in the Champions Trophy in Melbourne later this month.

Lee's attitude may seem peculiar for a man who has just presided over the single biggest achievement in British men's hockey since Great Britain won gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

But he does concede in that winning a major title, England may have overcome a mental hurdle heading towards the London 2012 Olympics.

"Sixth is a fair reflection of where we are and how we've played over the last four years," Lee said before boarding a flight to Australia.

"We came fifth in the Beijing Olympics (as Great Britain), and we've had poor results at other major tournaments apart from the European Championships.

"But there's been a slight change of late. We've never really beaten any of the top sides in major championships, and now we've done that twice in the space of a few days.

"We were ranked 11th in the world three years ago. So we've probably made more advances than anyone in the last four years.

"But if it's hard to get to sixth, it's harder still to get to the top. That has to be our ambition going to 2012, which you can't escape as a date."