Wet and windy conditions at the Manchester Regional Arena did not dampen the spirits of the players as a fast paced opening saw thunderous tackles flying in from both sides.

It was the Netherlands though, who made the first real breakthrough when on 18 minutes, the predatory IIjas Visker pounced to score his astonishing eighth goal of the tournament.

Dennis Straatman doubled the Netherlands’ lead just five minutes later with a coolly taken penalty after the linesman spotted a foul on Visker inside the penalty area.

But despite going 2-0 down, Ireland quickly fought back.

Gary Messett claimed an important goal for Ireland just before half time before and then just seconds after the interval, Jason Moran grabbed another to level the game at 2-2.

Ireland had chances to score a priceless third but a fine string of saves from Dutch goalkeeper Rudi van Breemen kept the scores level.

But with the final heading into extra time, Bruinier hit a fine strike into the bottom right hand corner of the goal to give his team the title.

Visker, who ended up as the competition's top scorer, told insideworldparasport: "It’s a fantastic feeling to win the BT Paralympic World Cup.

"The whole team played really well and I think that we deserved this.

"Credit to Ireland who fought really hard but it is great to win the first ever winners of the World Cup seven-a-side tournament."

A disappointed Messett said: "We’re very disappointed with the silver medal today because we really wanted the gold medal.

"I thought we played really well and deserved to win, but The Netherlands did as well and they took the final score.

"It’s the first time we lost in the whole tournament and unfortunately it was in the final, but we need to move on from here to concentrate on getting ready for the World Championships in August."



In the bronze medal match, Britain defeated the United States 8-4 in a thrilling match.

Michael Barker was the undoubted hero for Britain as he picked up four goals for home side while Adam Ballow claimed two goals for the US to give the score line some respectability for the visitors.

Britain’s goalkeeper and captain Jordan Raynes said: "The BT Paralympic World Cup has been a reality check for all the lads because we've not done as well as we would have hoped, but it's fantastic to be involved in such a big tournament.

"It’s the first year that seven-a-side football has featured here and I hope it continues because it's good preparation for our other tournaments this year, and hopefully having not done too well this time round we can be the underdog in the European Championships and this was a good opportunity for us to size up our opposition there.

"I thought America did really well; they did make it hard for us but we managed to score a good few goals and I'm happy that we won the game today.

"I think you learn more from a defeat that from a win, which is good for some of the younger lads on the team to experience and realise that it's not always a smooth experience to compete in an elite tournament like this. We'll learn from this and become better players."

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