GB feeling positive despite narrow Champions Trophy defeat
BySportsbeat
Published 22/06/2016 at 10:07 GMT
The Great Britain women's hockey team may have slipped to a narrow Champions Trophy defeat against New Zealand, but midfielder Susannah Townsend is adamant the positives are there for the rest of the week.
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The wait for a first win at this year's event in London goes on after an early goal was enough for the Black Sticks to edge to a 1-0 victory at the Lee Valley Hockey Centre.
Having drawn with Argentina and lost to the Netherlands in their first two matches, GB were hoping to finally notch a win against New Zealand but instead conceded the only goal of the game within the first minute.
Stacey Michelsen slalomed her way through the defence to fire home and although Sophie Bray, Giselle Ansley and Townsend all went close in response, the equaliser never came.
The loss all but ends Great Britain's chances of reaching the gold medal final on Sunday, while they will also anxiously await news on the fitness of defender Crista Cullen who left on crutches with a leg injury.
Victories over USA on Thursday and Australia on Saturday would at least see GB into the bronze medal match and Townsend is confident there is plenty to build on in order to make that a reality.
"Conceding an early goal isn't ideal but after that we played some really good hockey," said Townsend.
"They are a really fast counter-attacking team but we stopped them at the source. After those first five minutes we were on top.
"On another day we could have taken our chances and could have taken the win. This is tournament hockey; we have to go out and get three points but we came away with nothing so we have come away very disappointed.
"We tried to play the right way. We looked at the performance against Holland and weren't good enough – we took a step up and we've done everything but score.
"Unfortunately that is the most important thing when you come into a hockey game. It is not ideal but we will take it away and work on it as we want to get into the medal matches."
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