Mixed fortunes for England Para teams

Three of England’s para squads were in international action this week, with the Powerchair squad taking on the Home Nations, our women’s blind team in Japan for a tournament while the men’s cerebral palsy senior and development squads travelled to the Netherlands for games with their Dutch counterparts.

For our Powerchair Lions, it was a trip north of the border to Scotland for the annual Four Nations Tournament at the SportScotland National Sports Training Centre in Largs. A busy few days began with their opening match against Northern Ireland, which ended in a 4-1 win after goals from Dan McLellan (2), Dylan Kelsell and Ed Common ensured Adam McEvoy and Craig Peattie’s reign as head coaches was off to a winning start.

Game two saw Republic of Ireland in opposition, with Chris Gordon opening the scoring for England in the first half before four goals in a ten-minute spell after the break ended any Irish threat. McLellan (2), Common with his 50th goal on his 50th appearance and a first senior goal for Tyler Reeve completed a 5-0 win which sealed England’s spot in the Final with a game to spare.

The host nation Scotland were next up and England picked up where they left off as Kelsall scored twice in the opening minute, before he grabbed a third and fourth within ten minutes. Reeve then made it 5-0 before half time, as England took the chance to make changes for the second half to allow minutes for all members of the squad.

The flow of the game continued, and four goals in four minutes showed England’s ruthless streak as Jon Bolding fired home a long-range strike before the seventh, eighth and nineth goals were all created by Marcus Harrison and finished by McLellan for a three-minute hat-trick. McLellan added the tenth goal to seal an impressive victory.

It was the Republic of Ireland who were back in opposition in the Final on Sunday, and they set up to try and frustrate and counter against England. But after seven minutes, Kelsell found captain Bolding who placed low past the keeper for the opener in what was his 50th cap for England.

Five minutes, later the combination of McLellan and Kelsell struck again to double the advantage and give England the platform for victory.

The third goal arrived when Bolding set up Mclellan with four minutes remaining, meaning McLellan finished the tournament by scoring in all of England’s matches.

Earlier in the week, it was the Para Lionesses who were in action when they were held to a 0-0 draw with Australia in their opening game. England enjoyed the better of the chances and hit the post but were just unable to find a breakthrough.

In their second game, they faced current world champions Argentina and despite a hard-working and disciplined performance it ended in a 3-0 defeat.

Match three saw England tackle the host nation Japan, which was a narrow 1-0 defeat in difficult conditions with another battling effort which deserved more than a loss.

It was still enough to secure a place in the semi-final, against Argentina again, when the team put in a superb performance to hold the South Americans to a 0-0 draw only to lose on a penalty shootout.

Their final match came in the third-place play-off against Australia, in which the team put in their best display of the competition with plenty of attempts and finding an Australian ‘keeper in fine form to keep them at bay.

Unfortunately though, on a rare Australian attack they managed to clinch what proved to be the winning goal which gave England an unfortunate 1-0 defeat.

The CP squads travelled to the KNVB football centre at Zeist for their games over the weekend and it kicked-off on Friday with a double match, as a brace from captain Matt Crossen secured a 2-2 draw for Andy Smith’s seniors before the development squad lost by 3-2 with England’s goals coming from Aaron Lucas and Corey Komorowski.

The development team were back in action on Saturday, when two goals from Komorowski looked to have secured a win only for a last-minute equaliser from the Dutch to level things up at 2-2.

Sunday saw the final match of their trip, but unfortunately the senior team were beaten by 3-0.