Great Britain expect first competitive victory in Euro qualifiers

By Gerard Meagher, Sportsbeat

GREAT Britain's men's assistant coach Bill Baillie expects his troops to secure their first competitive victory this weekend - but warned of the pressures of home advantage with London 2012 on the horizon.

LEADING MAN: Huw Goodwin is the only UK-based player in the GB team with all others dotted around the continent (Reiner Worm)

Buoyed by a recent win over Belgium - their first against European opposition in four years - Great Britain head into a European Championships qualifying tournament with three games in three days against Cyprus, Estonia and Bulgaria in Crystal Palace.

Only one team will advance to the next stage of Euro 2012 qualifying but such has Great Britain's progress been since UK Sport slashed their funding by 63 per cent in January 2009, Baillie believes all four sides can have genuine designs on advancing.

Estonia look set to pose the sternest challenge to Great Britain but Baillie insists both Bulgaria and Cyprus represent winnable fixtures - provided the occasion does not get the better of his young charges.

"It's been a case of refreshing for us recently. We've been pretty flat out over the last couple of weeks, but we're heading into these European qualifiers full of confidence," said Baillie.

"We're looking at the opposition and whereas we've had World Championships qualifiers in the past against some really elite teams, we believe any team can win this competition.

"We're hoping home advantage plays its part for us but we have to make sure at the same time that the players do not get swept up in the occasion.

"We've got a young group of players here, the average age is just over 22, but they've been together for quite a while now and the progress they've made is fantastic.

"Great Britain have never hosted a competitive match before so it's going to be a new experience and will be interesting to see how the players deal with it."