Battling GB Men go Down to Turkey

A BATTLING performance from Great Britain men against Turkey on Saturday was not enough to see them record a third consecutive victory, with the visitors scraping a 26-28 victory in the final match of the series at Loughborough University.

Nine goals from Steven Larsson helped GB contend with a strong Turkish side, and left Larsson as the tournament’s top scorer with 17 goals after bagging eight in Friday night’s victory over Italy.

“We’re really satisfied with how this whole week has gone,” said assistant coach Bill Baillie. “And we were delighted with the performance against Turkey even though we didn’t get the result we would’ve liked.

“But it was difficult for us because we had less than 18 hours rest between the two games, whereas Turkey had a day more than us.”

After going goal for goal for much of the first half the score ended with GB just one down at 13-14 at the break. But Turkey came out fighting for the last period, while mistakes began to creep into GB’s game.

Injuries to key players - with captain Ciaran Williams sustaining a facial injury and Chris McDermott a leg injury - further hit GB’s hopes, and they found themselves 19-26 down with eight minutes left on the clock.

However their fighting spirit shone through and they battled back to within two goals with a 7-2 streak, but just failed to catch their rivals.

Apart from Larsson’s nine goals, Sebastian Prieto (pictured) added seven, while for Turkey Tugberk Catkin and Ramazan Done both scored six.

“Every time these boys come together they are improving, and we can really see the step up now from how they were back in January when we were together last,” added Baillie.

“We have a four-week long camp in May, and it will be good to see how much we can improve then, but it’s all about staying together, learning together, and stepping up.”