King’s Lynn’s Danny Kerry sees benefits in Great Britain women’s Champions Hockey Trophy near-miss

Great Britain women's coach, King's Lynn's Danny Kerry, believes the team's near-miss in the Champions Trophy may actually do them more good in the long run.

The squad returned from Argentina last week with a silver medal – their best finish in a world-level event – having lost 1-0 to the hosts in the final in Rosario.

And while there is still lingering disappointment at getting so close to gold, Kerry thinks it could help their quest for success at this summer's Olympics.

'Silver in the long-term might not be necessarily a bad thing,' said Kerry, a former KES pupil and player with the Pelicans club in King's Lynn.

'It is the right mixture of aspiration and disappointment.

'A few of the girls are still getting over the trip because there is some disappointment going around.

'But there is a strong sense of belief now they have done a lot of hard work and found a consistent level of performance.''

Kerry believes the performances in Argentina, where the women beat the world number two hosts in a warm-up tournament before the Champions Trophy, have shown they can sustain competitive displays against the top nations.

And with a lot of the groundwork done – Kerry thinks his squad are the fittest in the world – they can work on the elements which are likely to prove decisive come the Olympics.

'Overall what I am looking for as a head coach is consistency of performance – there is no point going to those events having one-off great performances and getting a nice result,'' said the former Canterbury coach. 'Our default game was pretty robust and at a consistent level and that is the thing I am most pleased about.'