UKRAINE 10 GREAT BRITAIN 8

Great Britain finished sixth in the LEN European Nations Trophy after a 10-8 loss to Ukraine at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Britain looked tired in the first half and went 6-3 behind. Their passing was poor, with the man-up attack failing to function effectively. They recovered to win the final period 5-2 but it was too late.

Serhiy Grishyn scored the opening goal, turning Tom Curwen at centre forward to shoot through Ed Scott’s arms. Matthew Thresher equalised from an extra-man attack after Vladyslav Soslovskiy had been sent out for fouling Curwen. Captain Craig Figes saw his shot from four metres hit the angle of post and bar before bouncing out and Soslovskiy went down the other end to score.

Andrew Squires hit back with two minutes to go in the quarter when the Lancaster man drilled the ball past Petro Radivilov. Thresher forced Radivilov to save as Britain looked to make a winning start to the period.

Alex Parsonage shot just wide after Vadym Kozlov was excluded, but Ukraine broke to score through Yevgen Obedinskyy. Mark Banwell levelled the scores with a typical centre forward’s goal, beating Denys Kolesnikov before shooting high into the net. Scott Carpenter hit the post moments later.

Scott was forced to save from Roman Olefirenko and Tymur Shylin at the other end but then Kolesnikov beat the Manchester goalkeeper with a skip shot from five metres.

Figes was excluded and Soslovskiy netted for a second time and he scored an unstoppable shot from six metres to complete his hat-trick and give Ukraine a three-goal cushion.

Radivilov denied Parker and Carpenter early in the third. Shylin grabbed his first of the match when Thresher was given his second personal foul. Britain almost got one back immediately when Curwen hit the post following Kostyantyn Shevchenko’s exclusion.

Figes received his second exclusion and Scott saved from Shylin in the resulting 6-on-5. The Manchester stopper then saved from Grishyn. Soslovskiy scored his fourth on the fast break to open up a five-goal lead with 21 seconds of the third remaining.

Britain used a time out when Shylin was sent out and Parker scored from the post position in the extra-man attack. Parker was excluded and Scott denied Olefirenko from point blank range before Obedinskyy was sent out. Squires scored his second from the right wing to reduce the deficit to three. But Kolesnikov scored his second of the game to restore the four-goal lead.

Curwen scored his first of the game for Britain to pull a goal back and Figes scored his first to move them to within two with 3:30 to go.

Centre forward Volodymyr Voytenko put the result beyond doubt with a goal 1:01 from the buzzer. Sedgefield’s Chris Gilbertson scored with 35 seconds left when Olefirenko was excluded but it was too late to save Britain from defeat.

Result: 10-8 (2-2; 4-1; 2-0; 2-5)

Ukraine: 1 Denys Volonchuk, 2 Kostyantyn Shevchenko (Capt), 3 Tymur Shylin (1 goal), 4 Vadym Kozlov, 5 Volodymyr Voytenko (1), 6 Roman Olefirenko, 7 Denys Kolesnikov (2), 8 Vladyslav Soslovskiy (4), 9 Sergiy Pantyukov, 10 Yevgen Obedinskyy (1), 11 Igor Piperko, 12 Serhiy Grishyn (1), 13 Petro Radivilov

Great Britain: 1 Ed Scott, 2 Sean Ryder, 3 Mark Banwell (1 goal), 4 Scott Carpenter, 5 Craig Figes (Capt, 1), 6 Andrew Squires (2), 7 Alex Parsonage, 8 Tom Curwen (1), 9 Rob Parker (1), 10 Adam Scholefield, 11 Chris Gilbertson (1), 12 Matthew Thresher (1), 13 Matthew Birch