'One of our best wins of the year' - Kookaburras elated after gritty victory over Great Britain

The Kookaburras are hailing composure and pure grit for a confident win over World Number 3 Great Britain.

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Putting on a show in front of a packed crowd in London, the Kookaburras overcame an early deficit to bounce back, in a game fitting for a match-up between two top-five sides.

The hosts got on the board early through a penalty corner goal to Gareth Furlong but NSW's Blake Govers would soon ensure the Kookaburras would level, with an unstoppable strike off the penalty corner four minutes later.

And as the crowd roared, after already having witnessed their heroes go down to the Hockeyroos in the women's match just moments earlier, England would re-take the lead right on the first quarter break.

But despite a very even first quarter, that would be their last goal of the match, with Perth's Tom Wickham levelling the scores 2-all, hammering it home on the turn at close range inside the circle.

"I love scoring goals, I mean, it's my job. When the boys chuck it in there, it's my job to clean up the mess and hopefully, there are a few more to come," Tom said post-match.

Australia had a few extra chances that didn't go their way, including one straight after Tom's goal, which was beautifully saved off a penalty corner that followed a great run by Tim Brand off of Nathan Ephraum's intercept.

And as the pressure piled on both sides to take the lead, the Kookaburras pounced on another penalty corner, with the double going to the side's prolific goalscorer Blake Govers.

"Great Britain are a bloody good side and we knew that their brand of hockey is a really tough brand to play against so we had to be switched on. We had to make sure we stuck to our game plan and it's never going to be perfect but at the end of the day it was really promising that we could grind it out," Tom said.

Rewarded for his impressive defensive efforts with Player of the Match, skipper Aran Zalewski reflected on his side's win.

"I run around trying to keep up with the young folks!" Aran said post-match. 

"It was a really tough match for sure. The top teams in the world now are very even. We knew England were going to have their moments today and we knew we had to nullify their momentum. I think they did go up twice in the game and we would hope that when we got on top we started to build that momentum and we did that."

"We'll take this into Germany and that's another tough game. They're world champions and they are a very good outfit and I think they've got a few players coming back in to face us, so it'll be another good match tomorrow against Germany."

Head coach Colin Batch admitted it was one of their side's best wins this year, in a year that has been full of gritty victories. 

The Kookaburras aren't resting on their laurels, saying they have more to improve on when they go again in 24 hours against Germany at 2.15am AEST on June 10.

Kookaburras v Great Britain
Kookaburras: 3 (Blake Govers 11' (PC) & 40' (PC), Tom Wickham 27' (FG))
Great Britain: 2 (Gareth Furlong 7' (PC), Zachary Wallace 15' (FG))
At Lee Valley Hockey & Tennis Centre, London

Kookaburras: 6. Matt Dawson, 7. Nathan Ephraums, 10. Joshua Beltz, 11. Eddie Ockenden, 13. Blake Govers, 16. Tim Howard, 17. Aran Zalewski (c), 20. Ky Willott, 22. Flynn Ogilvie, 29. Tim Brand, 30. Andrew Charter (gk), 1. Lachlan Sharp, 2. Tom Craig, 3. Corey Weyer, 4. Jake Harvie, 5. Tom Wickham, 8. Johan Durst (gk), 12. Jake Whetton