Great Britain manager Andy Halliday described his feelings after the match as 'shell shocked', and pundits will be reaching for their record books to see if his side's result against Spain in the Champions Trophy in Auckland has broken any records.
Barry Middleton's 23rd minute goal for GB seemed a favourable enough start, but Spain managed to squeeze a shock reply between Middleton's goal and the half-time hooter. Eddie Tubau and Pau Quemada each managed to score in the space of a minute, and Santi Frexia and Gabriel Dabanch repeated the trick before the half ended.
George Pinner, playing his first ever Champions Trophy match and only his third GB cap, was subjected to a baptism of fire as Juan Fernandez increased Spain's lead early in the second half. But Great Britain's final indignity was yet to come. With five minutes left on the clock, Frexia scored his second and Spain's sixth. As the game moved into the dying minutes, James Tindall was sin-binned and Spain used the power play to net the ball twice more, both coming from Roc Oliva.
Final score 8-1 to Spain and GB finish Pool A in third place, above Pakistan. One crumb of comfort from the results is that GB go into the next round of matches in Pool D with points in hand from their Pool C match against Pakistan. They play their first Pool D match against Germany on Thursday. The other members of Pool D will be Korea and Pakistan.
Full results and tables are on our main web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk.
