England men’s deaf Futsal team finished ninth out of 16 nations at the European Championship in Finland this month.
Coaches Paul Harrison and Leon Marcos led the squad into the tournament in Tampere which saw the Three Lions play a total of six games across the week.
And they couldn’t have had a harder start to the competition as they kicked-off against Europe’s top nation, Russia. But despite goals from Jamie Clarke, Daniel Hogan, Adam Breeze and Philip Swift, England couldn’t prevent a 9-4 reverse.
They responded well in their second group game though, as England put in a fine performance to beat Bulgaria by 6-3. They showed their resolve to come back from being 3-1 down too, to beat the eighth-ranked team in Europe courtesy of goals from Hogan (2), a Clarke hat-trick and a Nathan Jackson strike.
Sweden were the final group opponents, but despite another Clarke goal, England went down to a 6-2 defeat with a Swedish defender scoring the other goal.
Again, England showed their character to bounce back with a 5-0 win against Turkey in their next fixture and then a 6-4 victory over Norway thanks to a brace apiece for Clarke and Breeze and a goal apiece for Jonathan Atkinson and Davut Jarchlou.
That result set up their final placing game against the Dutch and England ended the competition with a third straight win, as they clocked up a 4-2 scoreline after two more for Clarke and goals from Atkinson and Breeze.
The squad: John Atkinson, Adam Breeze, Jamie Clarke, Scott Coalwood, Marios Costi, Byron Down, Rhyan Evans, Daniel Hogan, Nathan Jackson, Davut Jarchlou, Sam Kitchin, Oliver Manoocherhi, Andrew Reay, Philip Swift
