Slovakia 6-17 Great Britain
If Great Britain needed extra motivation to win their third game of the LEN European Nations Trophy, they got it in the form of HRH Prince William as he threw the ball into the water before the start of the final game on day three at Manchester.
The host nation kept up their 100 per cent record in the group stages with a 17-6 win over Slovakia to automatically qualify for the semi finals, giving them a rest day tomorrow.
The Slovaks could only manage one goal in each of the first three quarters and three in the final period as they found the going tough.
Centre forward Angela Winstanley-Smith got the better of both goalkeeper and defender to put Britain one-nil up within 30 seconds before opposition captain Michaela Migrova equalised for Slovakia.
Britain’s top goalscorer Chloe Wilcox then grabbed a quick two goals before Winstanley-Smith, always a nuisance for the Slovak defence, won a penalty which was converted by Hannah Wild.
Hazel Musgrove finished the scoring in the first quarter to make the score 5-1 at the interval. It was Britain who got the scoring off in the next quarter as Wilcox, who would score five in total, completed her hat-trick.
Wild, Winstanley-Smith and Musgrove were the other scorers in the first half. These came either side of a Lacikova penalty and two missed penalties, one by Alexandra Rutlidge and the other by Miroslava Ziakova.
Szilveszter Fekete’s side’s dominance helped them to edge a low-scoring third quarter by three goals to one before an explosion of goals in the final eight minutes.
The victory was wrapped up with goals from Wilcox, Rachel Drabble (3) and Francesca Clayton.
After the victory, four-goal Drabble commented: “I think it was a good win. I wasn’t too pleased [with her performance] but next time I just need to do things right and hopefully more will go in.
Captain Rosalind Griffiths said: “I didn’t really expect us to win by that margin. We controlled the whole game and had a few missed opportunities but I think that is to be expected.”
The semi final spot means that the team will have a rest day and, while Drabble hopes for a well deserved lie-in, Griffiths is hoping for a bonding session.
“We are going to see if we can go to the cinema as a team outing but there are some negotiations to go yet,” she said.
After that there is the prospect of an even tougher match against either Croatia or Portugal and Griffiths continued: “Szilveszter will be bringing out the videos.
“We will have an hour in front of the videos, use slow-motion, identifying the dangerous players and how they are going to move.”
