England finished as fourth in the CP World Championships on Saturday, after a 2-0 extra-time defeat to Russia in the bronze medal match.
Despite the result, it represents a best-ever tournament performance for the Three Lions CP side who reached the semi-final before losing out 3-1 to eventual runners-up Iran.
Andy Smith’s side could consider themselves unfortunate too, as they took pre-tournament favourites Russia to extra time before goals from Borkin Aleksei and Tumakov Aleksei broke the deadlock to seal third place for their team.
Despite the setback, head coach Smith is positive for the future of his team as they continue to evolve and build on their experiences in Argentina.
“That’s one of the reasons that I took the job on because I see great potential in the squad to go and really challenge the top teams in the world,” he said.
“There’s still progress to be made and a lot of learning to do but that’s what excites me, because we’re nowhere near the finished article and we will get better.
“Iran were silver medalists at the Paralympics and on another day we could’ve won the game and Russia are the best team in the world in my opinion, so we really are getting closer to those teams.
“The squad have been fantastic and should be very proud of what they’ve achieved.”
In the final, Ukraine beat Iran by 1-0 to seal the title in San Luis, Argentina.
