England, 14 August 2005
Not a match either team could look forward to. Old rivals, a repeat of a pool match, a 9:00 am start and the loser would be relegated to Group B. No team can take chances with Holland and both teams concentrated on defence. Holland had the best chances but the first half finished with no goals. Six minutes into the 2nd half Simon Hosking decided to avoid the personal attention he was getting from Holland’s defender and went for a party-piece flick-up and hit which paid off. 1- 0 England. Holland kept at it but Dan Barton presented a wall behind England’s defence. With 6 minutes remaining Simon played a supporting role to provide the text book pass to the far post that Brendan Barker hit home to make it 2 – 0. Holland had now run out of options and Brendan repeated the performance with 2 minutes to go for the final score of 3 – 0. England did it the hard way but stay in Group A. The tournament has seen a number of firsts for England and statistics of played 6, won 3, Spain limited to 4 – 1 (the same as Portugal), 16 goals for, 13 goals against are worthy of top 8. Just needed a couple of gaols at the right time.

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Reporter: Aileen Barker