Newark hockey star Shona McCallin’s Olympic debut began with a frustrating 2-1 defeat to Germany in Tokyo.
Sarah Jones opened the scoring for the reigning champions but goals either side of half-time from Viktoria Huse and Charlotte Stapenhorst condemned them to defeat in the opener.
Mark Hager’s side were beyond wasteful in the attacking circle, squandering 11 penalty corner opportunities and only managing one goal from 17 shots.
They do face four further group games and only need to finish in the top four of six-strong Pool A to progress, with skipper Hollie Pearne-Webb stressing positives.
"We'll go back, look at the stats and see that was a really dominant performance,” said Pearne-Webb, who scored the winning penalty in the famous Rio shootout victory.
“In one way it's really disappointing because on balance of play, the points should have been ours. However, we didn't make sure it was three points.
“The difference was just in both circles. We'll look at the stats and they didn't have many opportunities, maybe one corner, one stroke, not many shots.
“We had loads of corners and that's the difference, at both ends. We need to go back and tighten up those areas. Overall, it was really positive."
Team GB made all the running in the first quarter as Germany picked up an early green card and conceded several short corners, with Giselle Ansley flicking on target on seven minutes.
Remorseless pressure and two successive short corners paid off when Lily Owsley got a crucial touch to divert the ball into the path of Sarah Jones, who tapped home at the near post.
Maddie Hinch was then called into action, making a sharp stop with her left kicker from Lisa Altenburg’s fierce backhand effort.
Britain were forced on the back foot and conceded a penalty stroke when Anna Toman was adjudged to have prevented a clear shooting opportunity for Pia Maertens in the goalmouth.
Viktoria Huse generated no power on her penalty flick but sent Hinch the wrong way to level.
Hannah Martin, adding attacking incision on her return from injury, came close to restoring her side’s lead at the start of the third quarter from point blank but was foiled by Julia Sonntag.
With the loose ball, Germany broke behind Britain’s defence at pace and Stapenhorst, educated at Repton School in Derbyshire, converted from close range to make it 2-1.
Britain piled on the pressure in search of an equaliser, with a late yellow card leaving Germany, but couldn’t produce the goods.
“Now we're into the tournament, game one's out of the way,” said Pearne-Webb, whose Team GB exploits in Tokyo will be broadcast live on Eurosport and discovery+.
“We've got South Africa on Monday and we need to take the confidence from the dominance we showed and take that into that game and just to tweak a few things."
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