Picture: The architects of GB's first goal, Crista Cullen (left) and Chloe Rogers (centre) celebrate.Great Britain's women played the second of a test series against Germany at Bisham Abbey this afternoon.
Germany had by far the better run of the first half, with Celine Wide scoring in the 19th minute. Great Britain absorbed a tremendous amount of pressure but were kept in the game by some stout defending and good work by Maddie Hinch, earning her first GB cap in goal.
The first half ended with Scotland's Laura Bartlett being stretched off and taken to hospital with a knee injury.
From the restart Great Britain were more into the game and they received an early reward with a penalty corner, which saw striker Crista Cullen play a convincing dummy which allowed Chloe Rogers to slip the ball past a stranded Yvonne Frank to give GB an equaliser.
We only had to wait three minutes for another corner goal, which saw Crista Cullen take the strike – no dummy this time - to bury the ball in the German goal. Some careless passing in the German defence gave GB their third, when a series of penalty corners allowed Cullen to score her second.
In the last quarter of the match the Germans seemed to find their shape again, and Eileen Hoffman managed to score from open play with seven minutes remaining.
The final score: 3-2 to GB. A workmanlike effort by the Great Britain women, but past experience has shown that the Germans are not quite so much a pushover when it comes to the major tournaments. We have the Champions Trophy in Nottingham to look forward to in that respect.
GB versus Germany: Maddie Hinch (Leicester), Laura Unsworth (Leicester), Crista Cullen (Leicester), Jo Ellis (Reading), Helen Richardson (Reading), Natalie Seymour (Canterbury), Chloe Strong (Slough), Emily Maguire (Reading), Chloe Rogers (Leicester), Kerry Williams (Leicester), Alex Danson (Reading), Nicola White (Slough), Laura Bartlett (Reading), Ashleigh Ball (Slough), Katie Long (Leicester), Sally Walton (Bowdon Hightown).
Germany: Yvonne Frank, Tina Bachmann, Mandy Haase, Eileen Hoffman, Nina Hasselmann, Lydia Haase, Katherine Ottte, Hannah Kruger, Fanny Rinne, Marie Mavers, Jennifer Plass, Sija Lorenzen, Maike Stockel, Janne Muller-Wieland, Celine Wide, Lina Geyer.
