ENGLAND gave their loyal supporters plenty to smile about with victory over Germany in their last match at this year's Men's FIL World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester.

The hosts clinched an impressive 14-9 win to secure fifth position in this year's tournament at the University of Manchester Armitage Centre.

Attackers Adi Bennett, Nicky Watson and Lewis Radcliff all netted hat-tricks for England, Tom Gosnay - who played with a broken wrist - added double, while Mark Reynolds, Matt Bagley, Evan Roberts and Cayle Radcliff were all on the scoresheet.

"We were a little asleep at the start, but we came back well," reflected Dave Elwood, the England head coach.

"They [Germany] have done fantastic in this tournament, but we knew we had to finish the tournament strongly and we did that.

"We should have been playing for a medal, but we put that disappointment behind us and showed lots of character."

England stormed the opening quarter 4-0 and led 8-2 at half-time, before edging the penultimate period 4-3.

But it was Germany who finished the stronger as they won the deciding quarter 4-2 and finished sixth overall out of the 29 nations who competed in this year's tournament.

Results

Men's FIL World Championships (Manchester, Armitage Centre) - Fifth/sixth place play-off: England 14 Germany 9.

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