Table tennis: Paul Drinkhall annoyed by poor show as England trail Slovakia in European Championship play-off

Drinkhall, 27, lost two matches as England trail 3-1 ahead of the deciding second leg next week.

The Loftus player was beaten 3-1 (11-8, 7-11, 6-11, 4-11) by Lubomir Pistej in the first match but teammate Liam Pitchford levelled the tie after a 3-2 win over Wang Yang.

However, a defeat for Sam Walker against Peter Sereda put Slovakia back into the lead and Drinkhall was unable to restore parity in the final match against Yang.

Despite the defeat, Drinkhall still believes England have every chance of turning the tie around.

"We knew they potentially were a tough team and it could be a close match,” he said.

"Myself and Sam weren’t very good today and they did what they needed to do against us, but on another day there’s no reason we can’t win against them.

"I feel okay but sometimes you go through difficult times and I’m not quite finding a way to turn it around yet – but you’ve got to keep fighting and keep training."

The second leg is on Tuesday and the winning nation will qualify for the top division at the European Championships in Luxembourg later this year while the losing side will drop into the second tier.