GB's Paralympic football team pay price for missed penalties - Hertfordshire Mercury (blog)

WILL we ever win anything at football? After GB's miserable performance at the Olympics it was the turn of our much-hyped Paralympic five-a-side team to flop at a major competition.

I sat in the stands for this afternoon’s do-or-die clash with Iran which GB needed to win by two goals or more.

Blind football is an absolutely incredible game to watch - combining skill and drama in equal measure - and I really don’t know how the players manage to chase the ball (with a noise making device inside) around the pitch for two 25-minute halves. There’s just a 10 minute break at half-time and with no throw ins and no offside rule so it really is non-stop action.

On a hot and humid afternoon it must have been really punishing for the players, but unfortunately for the home supporters it was Iran who rose to the occasion, registering their first ever Paralympic victory with a 1-0 triumph.

Iran dominated the first half with Ahmadreza Shah Hossein netting from the penalty spot. Penalties are strange affairs in blind football and are awarded after a team commits four fouls.

The player taking the spot kick gets his bearings thanks to a guide behind the net, who first taps each post with a metal bar, and then stands behind the net clapping his hands just before the player shoots.

In fact this game takes a lot of getting used to as the two referees are an integral part of the action – directing the players to the ball for corners and free-kicks – so there’s definitely no abuse aimed at them like in the sighted version. He also pushes each of the players in the wall backwards or forwards to make sure they are the correct distance away.

I was very disappointed with the way GB played in the first half – they hardly made any shots on goal, whereas Iran were incredibly physical, with one player in particular, Behzad Zadaliasghari proving a real handful with some extreme tackles and surging runs before he was ‘wheelchaired’ off injured.

Unfortunately it was that bane of English (but I need to say British in this context) football – penalty misses – which proved our downfall.

GB missed four of them, not bad attempts mind you, there were tremendous stops by the only sighted player on the pitch, the keeper.

Veteran skipper David Clarke, who hails from Hertfordshire and gave David Beckham a lesson in blind football on a recent Channel 4 Paralympic preview programme, did his best to lift the team, but even he couldn’t get past the Iranian defence. He also missed a spot kick.

GB did at least put in an excellent second-half display, with both Clarke and Daniel English enjoying numerous attempts on goal.

I had the urge to shout ‘pass it there’s loads of space over there’ or ‘shoot! there’s no-one in front of you’ many times, but had to bite my lip like the rest of the crowd and watch in complete silence.

GB finish bottom of the group and must now play China, one of the pre-tournament favourites, for a place in the fifth-place play-off.

Coach Tony Larkin did his best to try and console the despondent players after the defeat.

He said something you normally wouldn’t hear a football manager say about his team: “The lads are in tears in the changing room, so that just tells you how much it means to them.

“It was just one of those days when things weren't going to go in for us, but credit to the lads they kept fighting.”

He added:” People like Dave Clarke are really disappointed because he’s normally fantastic with the six-metre penalties. But he's got nothing to feel sorry about because he’s got an absolutely fantastic record.

“My job now is to pick them up, because we’ve got two games left, because we want the crowd to come back and watch us.

“I just hope - not just for ourselves - that it (the Paralympics) puts blind football on the map in GB because we’re looking for young players to replace the likes of Clarke.

“If there any blind people out there who are interested in football, not just for international level but for recreation, they should give it a try because it brings great enjoyment to these guys.”