Royce remains positive

Defeat by South Korea in the third of Great Britain's encounters with the stylish Asians did little to deflate the buoyant mood of their coach, Jon Royce.

Defeat by South Korea in the third of Great Britain's encounters with the stylish Asians did little to deflate the buoyant mood of their coach, Jon Royce.

"We have got a lot out of this trip," said Royce on the eve of announcing his Olympic selections. "We've kept in touch with Spain's development and had a good look at Korea with a win, a draw and a defeat."

Yesterday, Britain's women team failed to capitalise on a third-minute strike from Lucilla Wright, and were a goal down by the interval. A penetrating, 40-yard run by Tina Cullen ended with the Hightown striker equalising eight minutes into the second half, before poor defending in the 57th minute allowed the Koreans to take the lead through Mi Kyung Shin, a position from which Britain never recovered.

GREAT BRITAIN: C Reid (Hightown); P Stott (Bonagrass Grove), F Greenham (Slough), M Clewlow (Canterbury, capt), K Bowden (Fyffes Leicester); J Smith (Slough), H Richardson (Fyffes Leicester), D Marston-Smith (Clifton); J Sixsmith (Sutton Coldfield), T Cullen (Hightown), L Wright (Olton). Substitutes used: K Walsh (Hightown), R Simpson (Grange Edinburgh), M Nicholson (Slough).

SOUTH KOREA: Yong Sook Park; Myung Ok Kim (capt); Hee Joo Yoo, Sun Hwa Lee, Soo Jung Kim; Mi Hyun Kim, Eum Young Lee, Jin Hyuk Bang; Bo Ra Cho, Mi Kyung Shin, Ko Woon Oh. Substitutes used: Seong Eun Kim, Eun Jin Kim, Jeong Soon Yang, Seong Eun Kim, Hang Joo Jeong.

Umpires: P Carne and P Sanchez (Sp).