Great Britain claimed their first women’s Olympic medal since 1992 as their penalty corner machine put paid to New Zealand’s brave efforts, themselves producing their best ever performance at the Games.

The hosts pulled all their switches out of the bag for Alex Danson, Crista Cullen and Sarah Thomas to all chip in gleefully received second half goals. In doing so, they recorded their second medal since women’s hockey was brought into the Games in 1980.

The first-half ended scoreless with Britain setting most of the tempo but struggling to find their forward runners in the circle. When they did, Hannah MacLeod and Alex Danson raised the crowd’s decibel levels, winning a couple of corners but Bianca Russell produced two decent saves to keep out Crista Cullen.

New Zealand, meanwhile, were lively down the right flank with Krystal Forgesson creating a couple of chances. From Stacey Michelsen’s lay-off, she struck the outside of the goal while she found Cullen’s foot to win her side’s only corner a minute before the break. The deflection move between Clarissa Eshuis and Charlotte Harrison did not quite connect.

And the bruised Katie Glynn – her stitch-protecting head-gear developing a fan club of its own – came within centimetres of earning the lead 40 seconds into the second half. Cathryn Finlayson’s left wing charge bounced her way and she wrong-footed Beth Storry but the ball bounced onto the face of the post just as the kiwi striker began to celebrate.

From there, however, GB were in the box seat and a wealth of second half penalty corners eventually took their toll. Danson won her side’s third from which the wide push-out created a brilliant angle for captain Kate Walsh to push to the flick spot where Danson was sliding in. Her touch was perfect and created a lead her side were not to relinquish.

The game was made safe with two more corner goals between the 59^th and 63^rd minutes as Cullen took the direct route and, amid a whirlwind phase, MacLeod won a corner which Walsh again located a deflector, this time Sarah Thomas on the mark.

New Zealand got a consolation when Michelsen tipped in an Eshuis’ drive. Their tournament performance proved the biggest rise from one tournament to the next, jumping from 12^th in 2008 in Beijing to fourth this time round – a result which also lifts them to third in the world rankings.

But this was GB’s party in front of their raucous fans, equaling their best ever Olympic result as the union jacks waved proudly in every corner of the packed Riverbank Arena.

(Stephen Findlater)

Danny KERRY (GBR)

On how he feels after Great Britain won a bronze medal: "I'm just really content, it was a lot of hard work. I thought the girls were incredibly thorough and professional. I asked them to play a particular way which doesn't suit us that much, but it was the best way to play against New Zealand, and they were deserving winners today. They didn't allow New Zealand to create opportunities which they have done against every other team. We executed on our corners, bar one. That's seven-and-a-half years of my life, just a contentment."

On the secret to building a close-knit group of players: "The very honest answer is I learned hard from my mistakes in the last Olympics. Leading up to Beijing, I was classically a coach who was driven by understanding hockey better than the opposition coach, and I completely and utterly ignored the most important asset which is your players and your other staff. I tried to defeat the world on hockey alone."

"It was a very tough review process after the Beijing Games. People told me a few home-truths about my way of working. At the time I felt betrayed because I felt I'd given everything to everybody and people were anonymously saying things about me which I didn't feel were actually me at all, it was just my 'work-me'. So it was a process of trying to understand myself better and therefore being able to work better with others."

"I realised how essential that was and so I then set about trying to do that with the girls as well. We went on a systematic process of trying to raise much more self-awareness within the girls. It's been pretty tough. It's not an easy thing to do. You don't often hear about this in high performance sport, you tend to hear about technique, tactics, training hard. The reality is the people who win medals, it just comes down to some character, and being willing to accept you have to change. As a head coach, I had to change and work hard, and work better with everybody. I started to see the results, so I thought 'why not do it with the girls?'. That's why we're such a close group."

Mark HAGER (AUS) - coach

On New Zealand's performance today: "We were outplayed for the whole game, I think. That had to do with discipline, we had people not running in the right spots. But all credit to Great Britain, they were the better team by far today."

On Great Britain's performance today: "They were desperate, they came to the ball first, they won the 50/50s and then the crowd started roaring. When that happens we tend to struggle, they manipulated us too well. We haven't played like we played the rest of the week. We had players thinking it was going to happen, instead of making it happen. Because we had such a good tournament and a great game against the Netherlands, we thought it would just flow on. So unfortunately, we learned that lesson today."

"When I see Kate WALSH with her broken jaw diving into the defensive circle, it is obvious that they are desperate and really want it. We couldn't turn it around."

Kate WALSH (GBR) - bronze

On winning bronze: "I don't think it's going to hit me for a couple of weeks to be honest. I've been so focused on our job that I don't think I've thought about anything other than the next game, recovery and the next game after that. Once I stand on that podium I think it may hit me and a couple of weeks later it's going to sink in."

On what happened between the semifinal and today's match: "We were heartbroken after our semifinal. The team was devastated. People couldn't talk. They were absolutely gutted. Everything we dreamed of was that gold medal. We knew we couldn't get it, but we vowed that we weren't going to go home empty-handed. We knew that we had the game. We knew that we had the mental capacity. We just had to put it all together."

On who she will dedicate her medal to: "The squad first of all. We've got a squad of 28. They've all been stood up there cheering us on and that's hard. Those girls missed out on a place in the squad. We did it for them. Also our friends and family who we've put through the mill at times. We've been so focused on our job and everything gets put by the wayside."

Katie GLYNN (NZL)

On New Zealand's performance: "We just sat back in the first half and were not our normal, aggressive selves. It is hard to reflect on this, it could turn out to be a left out opportunity. We made it into this match, so at least we've got that to be proud of."

On their future: "We will have a break before we regroup and continue training with this team." 

Gemma FLYNN (NZL)

On the loss: "There wasn't much in it, but they came out firing, took their corners and the crowd helped them a little bit as well today. We were pumped up and up for it, and if that ball hadn't of hit the post it would have put us in the right direction, but it just didn't fall our way today." 

On New Zealand's overall performance in the tournament: "It is a pretty hollow feeling coming fourth as we were so close, but we'll take a lot from it, in particular the importance of basics."

On New Zealand's improved position in the world ranking: "We did want a medal and that was our goal, so coming just short of it is pretty disappointing. Overall, it's good to have moved up in the rankings. We've moved forward as a unit but it didn't work for us in the way we wanted, so it is pretty hard to be happy at this stage as it is so raw."