Atkins' late winner

Jill Atkins, Great Britain's 32-year-old captain, was rightly looking pleased with herself as she walked off the field in Atlanta yesterday following Britain's dramatic 3-2 win against Germany which kept alive their medal hopes, writes Bill Colwill. This was a happier Atkins than after the previous game against Australia, when her careless pass had given Michelle Andrews the simple task of beating Hilary Rose for the game's solitary goal.

Yesterday Britain achieved a famous victory, coming back to score three times in the last 20 minutes, after looking down and out when Britta Becker had put Germany two goals ahead from a penalty stroke a few minutes into the second half.

In a highly competitive first half, Britain's best chance fell to Jane Sixsmith after a splendid run by Pauline Robertson down the right, but the three-times Olympian failed to connect. A minute later, a switch at a German penalty corner saw Franziska Hentschel open the scoring.

Britain's fightback was led by Atkins, who took over responsibility for striking at penalty corners to pull a goal back in the 51st minute. Ten minutes later another strike by Atkins was blocked but fell to Sixsmith to score from close in.

Any thoughts of Britain snatching a late victory seemed thwarted with the temporary suspension of the bruised and battered Brown three minutes later but, with one minute to go, the Germans conceded a penalty corner and Atkins stepped up to sink the winner.

GREAT BRITAIN: H Rose (Sutton); J Atkins (Bradford, capt); S Fraser (Bonagrass Grove), K Brown (Slough), K Johnson (Balsam Leicester); P Robertson (Edinburgh), M Davies (Sutton), T Miller (Clifton); J Sixsmith (Sutton), A Bennett (Slough), M Nicholls (Slough). Substitutes used: C Cook (Hightown), T Cullen (Hightown), R Simpson (Edinburgh), J Mould (Leicester).

GERMANY: S Wollschlager; S Thomaschinski; T Peters, E Hagenbaumer, P Suxdorf; B Becker, M Cremer, K Kauschke; H Latzsch, T Dickenscheid, N Ernsting-Krienke. Substitutes used: I Kuhnt, F Hentschel, N Keller, V Schmoranzer.