GB Men begin in World Championship Qualifiers
16th January 2010by By Frazer Snowdon, British Handball
The listing was posted by England Handball
A battling performance from Great Britain men was not enough to beat Romania in the opening match of their World Championship qualifying tournament in Finland on Friday evening.
After a stuttering first half which the Romanians won 11-21, Great Britain hit back well after the break and out-scored their opponents 16-15. However, it was not enough to overhaul the deficit and GB ended up losing 27-36.
Sebastian Prieto was top-scorer for GB with six goals, while Robin Garnham was also impressive and netted four times.
Both GB goalkeepers were in form too, with Bob White saving two from three penalties, while Jesper Parker made 14 saves and finished with a 38 per cent shot save ratio.
“We’re happy with the result,” said assistant coach Bill Baillie. “But we were still disappointed because we had done a thorough analysis on Romania before we came here, but the first half wasn’t good.
“The lads looked nervous, but after half time they looked a different team and played well, and at one point we fought back to just three down and really had the Romanians on the rack.
“Technical errors let us down once again, but we’ve arrived on the international scene now and we’re learning from every game.”
GB continue with their matches this afternoon at Vantaa with a game against Bosnia Herzegovina.