Courtesy FA.com

England edged out
Wednesday, 07 January 2004.

England's first ever Futsal international ended in narrow defeat as Graeme Dell's side lost 6-8 to Albania in the First Round of the UEFA Futsal Championships.
Before a noisy and passionate crowd in the Flamurtari Indoor Stadium, England started well, reflecting the work in the last six weeks since the team was assembled.

The Albanian attack stuggled to break down England's resolute defence with goalkeeper Graham Smith playing well between the sticks.

Meanwhile at the other end, England created chance after chance but as a result of some poor finishing, England missed as many as seven good goalscoring opportunities.

England's willingness to come forward played into the hands of their dangerous opponents who showed their class by repeatedly scoring goals from speedy counter-attacks.

However, the Three Lions' did not let these set-backs faze them and to their eternal credit they came back and levelled the scores on each occasion.

Louis Axcell from Buxton FC scored England's first and third international Futsal goals and a further strike from Ben Goddard ensured that the side's went in level at 3-3 at half-time.

The second half started in a similar vein as Albania quickly took the lead only for Gareth Berry to respond for Dell's side. England captain Dan Wood then fired England into the lead for the first time as his side started to take control of the match.

With England looking dangerous every time they came forward, Berry had a shot which hit the inside of the Albanian goal and rebounded to safety.

With three minutes remaining and England dropping deeper and deeper in protection of their lead, Albania finally broke through and equalised to the obvious delight of the crowd.

Shaken, England tried to come out of their shell but the Albanians now had the upper hand. After Smith brilliantly saved a six-metre penalty, the hosts went into the lead again when a stray pass on the half-way line enabled them to counter-attack with ruthless efficiency.

With only a minute to go, England searched in vain for an equaliser only for Albania to once again score and make the game safe.

The match vividly illustrated the excitement that the game of Futsal can generate and entralled the watching crowd, a national television audience and watching UEFA ofiicials.

After the match coach Graeme Dell said: "The team is devastated to have lost the game, especially when we know we were in a position to win it but we are making progress with every match and I am very confident that England could have a great future in this game.

England's second and concluding game in the qualifying tournament is against Cyprus tonight.

England squad: Axcell, Gallen, Goddard, Mullock, Norris, Platel, Simmons, Smith, Sykes, Walker, Wood, Purkiss, Follett