England women’s over-40s beat Holland 3-2 in the third/fourth place play-off in Spain to ensure they ended the campaign with silverware, although there was a tinge of disappointment within the camp after a 2-1 semi-final defeat to Australia on Saturday.
Helmholt-Kneisel’s side caught the Dutch on the counter in the final minute of their medal clash, having come from 2-0 down.
‘It was a brilliant ending,’ said Helmholt-Kneisel.
‘It was an end to end game and we scored the third goal in the last 30 seconds to win. They had a short corner which broke down and we went up the other end and scored.
‘We didn’t want to do shuffles [a shoot-out].’
She added: ‘We’re delighted to get bronze, but we could have gone all the way. We could have been in that final … we should have beaten Australia so we’re a bit gutted about that. We had two errors at the back and they scored from them.
‘But as my son has said to me, bronze is better than nothing.’
