The hosts began well and won the first set 25-16 but the Netherlands fought back to level the tie at 26-24 before claiming the third set by 25-22 to lead 2-1.

The Netherlands then had a fantastic fourth set which they won 25-16 to claim a 3-1 victory, but Britain's sitting volleyball head coach Ian Legrand claimed the result was not overly important as he was just glad to see the sport feature at the BT Paralympic World Cup and boost its profile ahead of the London 2012 Paralympics.

"The BT Paralympic World Cup is a great opportunity for us to showcase our sport and we hope that it will raise the profile of Sitting Volleyball," said Legrand.

"The team played well and I can see improvements; what we lack is consistency.

"We beat the Netherlands only six weeks ago in another close match so we know we have the ability to beat the top teams in the world, but we haven't reached the stage where we can deliver a winning performance every time so this is what we need to work on."

Charlie Walker, a double amputee on the team who contracted meningitis whilst training with the bomb disposal unit in the British Army, first tried sitting volleyball in 2009 and has since become an integral part of the British team.

"The first set was good and we needed to build on that, but we lost a bit of momentum and fell behind," said Walker.

"There are a lot of positives to take from the first set, and I think we have two months now to work on our game before the Continental Cup.

"We need to become more consistent and not lose belief in ourselves when we fall a few points behind."

Sitting volleyball was included in the Paralympic Games for the first time in 1976 as a demonstration sport.

Britain has never had a sitting volleyball team at the Paralympic Games but they are aiming to qualify for London 2012 where ten men's teams and eight women's teams will be in action at the ExCel Arena.

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April 2011: Britain take on Netherlands in inaugural sitting volleyball match at BT Paralympic World Cup