Since the domestic season finished in April there have been some highs and lows. I’m happy to say though, my season finished on a high with Great Britain securing our first competitive win against Bulgaria at Crystal Palace on 12 June 2010.
You can read more here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olliewilliams/2010/06/for_the_win_how_gb_handballers.shtml
I returned back to the UK at the beginning of April with a medial collateral ligament sprain in my right knee which kept me out of my last club game and a week-long training camp with GB at Crystal Palace.
I was worried it would keep me out of our preparations for our 2012 European Championship Qualification matches which took place in mid June but luckily I was passed fit to travel to Spain where our preparations began.
We played Galicia (a Spanish regional team made up of first and second division Spanish players) three times, experimenting with different defensive systems and offensive tactics. Unfortunately we were without some key members of the team due to injury but that is the nature of sport and is something we will have to overcome time and time again as we progress toward 2012.
Despite losing all three matches with tight score lines, I managed to rack up 125 minutes court time out of a possible 180 minutes and put in three solid performances which I needed after being injured for our previous training camp.
Next up we travelled to Belgium, who we had lost narrowly to in October 2009. It was going to be a tough match as we lost more players to other various commitments. We were due to play two matches.
In the first match we were finding it difficult in the early stages and made a lot of errors in attack, exposing us to counter attacks which have been a continual problem for us. We found ourselves trailing by four goals at half time and it would appear that we were down and out.
After the break we showed tremendous character and belief and managed to claw our way back into the match establishing a five goal lead thanks to some good saves by myself and much better performance from the boys in attack. We held on to our lead and managed to secure our first win over European competition. It was an amazing feeling and a day that I won’t forget in a hurry.
The next day we played Belgium again, we had lost influential line player Chris McDermott to injury and with him also being a key defender we found it difficult to contain a Belgian side keen on undoing the damage done the previous day.
We had no answers in defence or attack and slumped to a 14 goal defeat. All the energy put into the win the day before had cost us the match but fair play to the Belgians for coming back at us with everything they had.
The GB squad returned to Loughborough for a week of light training before we set off for our last set of friendly matches in Luxembourg before our European Qualifiers began. I missed the first game in Luxembourg due to personal reasons but made it out for the second game.
We had gone down by 13 goals in the game I missed which was a terrible result given that we drew with Luxembourg the previous October. We put in a better performance in the second game but still lost by nine goals. The squad appeared to be disjointed and with people coming in and out of the team at different stages we were finding it hard to find our rhythm.
We had hit a low point, but little did we know it was going to get worse before it got better. We returned to the UK to finish our preparations for our upcoming matches against Cyprus, Estonia and Bulgaria. Our official target was to secure one win out of the three matches.
Estonia were favourites of the group but we knew we would have a chance against Cyprus and the Bulgarians. In the first match it was looking good, we were in front against Cyprus at half time and appeared to be in control of the game.
I was a little disappointed not to retain my place in goal but the coach had gone for experience over form with Jesper Parker and he was doing well and keeping us ahead in the game. After the break we lost our heads and slumped to an 8 goal defeat. This was supposed to be our chance and we let it slip out of our hands.
We had a meeting that evening and tried to put our fingers on why we weren’t clicking as a team. We knew something had to change otherwise we would be thumped by Estonia who boast one of the best young talents in world handball and then struggle to pick ourselves up for the match against Bulgaria.
We dug deep in the first half trailing by five at half time. Jesper kept his place in goal and was doing ok but we were being exploited on the counter due to mistakes in attack. We continued to fight but went on to lose by nine goals. Although we lost the game against the group favourites, we had proved to ourselves that we could play fast, effective handball and with a performance like this tomorrow, surely we could match the Bulgarians.
Saturday came, the Hall was packed with over 500 fans and there was an air of excitement about. We got off to a bad start, Parker failed to get into the game and I replaced him after about 10 minutes. We were already down by five.
I managed to get into the game quickly and made a few saves and got us back within a couple of goals so we were down by two at half time. We had to come at them with everything in the second half to be in with a shout. I was in good form and keeping us close to them but we managed to miss a few clear chances to draw level.
Five minutes from the end we were down by four goals but we refused to give in. We battled our way level with a minute left and Steven Larsson scored his 13th goal of the game in the last second to give us a 33-32 victory.
We had done it, the crowd had got behind us and despite being eight goals behind at one point we didn’t give up. It was a fantastic moment in my career to date. It may sound crazy to celebrate winning one game and not even qualifying for the Euro’s but given what the team had been through the last few years we were going to treasure every second in front of the cheering fans.
It was a mixture of joy and relief. The fans, many of them experiencing their first taste of Handball had just witnessed a GB team making history. First win over European opposition on home soil; let’s hope there is more to come!
Related categories: 2012, Bobby White, Handball, Olympics
