But the US were not to be defeated and came back fighting in the second half with birthday boy Adam Ballou adding two before Britain’s Barker maintained daylight through a further two goals, which took his total tally to four.

Although disappointed not to get the gold, GB Captain and goalkeeper Jordan Raynes was pleased with his team’s win.

He said, “The BT Paralympic World Cup has been a reality check for all the lads because we've not done as well as we would have hoped, but it’s fantastic to be involved in such a big tournament.

“I think you learn more from a defeat that from a win, which is good for some of the younger lads on the team to experience and realise that it’s not always a smooth experience to compete in an elite tournament like this. We’ll learn from this and become better players.”

In the final, Jeffrey Bruinier’s free kick in the dying moments of the match sealed a 3-2 win, and the gold medal for The Netherlands.

Iljas Visker, the tournament’s top scorer, netted first against Ireland with a strike outside of the box, and a penalty by Dennis Straatman then doubled the lead. But Ireland’s captain, Gary Messett kept his team in the match just before halftime.

When they returned to the field Jason Moran levelled the score within the first minute and from there both sides were locked, until Bruinier’s effort went in.

Visker said, “It's my first tournament, so to come out and be the leading goal scorer is really great. I'm so glad to be here, it's been an amazing experience. The tournament is really well organised and to win such an elite event is such an experience.”

Elsewhere, with their place in the wheelchair basketball final already secured, head coach Murray Treseder took the opportunity to rest key players, Simon Munn, Jon Pollock, Abdi Jama and Ian Sagar, in GB’s final group game against Australia.

Despite a game high of 14 points by Dan Highcock and 7-a-piece for Simon Brown and Ademola Orogbemi, GB went down 68-50 to Australia who were led on the floor by Justin Eveson (24), Bill Latham (11) and Shaun Norris (10).

Highcock said, “As we knew we’d already done enough to make the final we were looking to achieve a few different things in this last game. First of all we played a different unit to what we’d usually run against that team so in the future if someone’s injured we can be confident in our strength and depth of players. Plus we were resting players for tomorrow's final.

“We started this game off well but then second half we missed a few shots, a lot of calls didn’t go our way, but we’ll take it and look ahead to tomorrow. They’re the Paralympic gold medallists so we knew it could be a tough one tonight.”

The GB women made it three loses out of three after going down 56-28 to Australia. The two sides will meet again tomorrow in the bronze medal game and Britain will hope to rise from the ashes.

GB player Pauline McDonald said, “We’re pretty disappointed today, we got into some foul trouble which created some problems and this entire tournament we’ve had shooting issues. For some reason, our shots are not falling, but we’re going to try to put all of that behind us and come out tomorrow ready for the game.”

Canada came out on top in the other two games of the day, with the women beating The Netherlands 66-45 in what was a dress rehearsal for tomorrow’s gold medal game, while the men beat Italy to confirm their gold medal meeting with GB.

The result of today’s Football 7-a-side match means Europe are now tied on top of the overall BT Paralympic World Cup trophy leader board.

The BT Paralympic World Cup Team Trophy standings, with two days to go are:
= EUR 70
= ROW 70
GB 40
AME 20

The BBC, the official televised partner to the event, will broadcast live from the Manchester Aquatics Centre on Monday 31 May on BBC Television.

Tickets for the BT Paralympic World Cup are on sale and can be purchased via the event website: www.btparalympicworldcup.com or by calling 0844 8471622. Tickets are priced at £6 per session.

BT is the title sponsor of the Paralympic World Cup; the sponsorship runs up to and includes the 2012 BT Paralympic World Cup.

The BT Paralympic World Cup is sanctioned by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Cerebral Palsy International Sports & Recreation Association (CPISRA) and the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and supported by BT, ParalympicsGB, the FA, Manchester City Council and the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

The event schedule will see Athletics on 25 May, Football 7-a-side on 26-29 May and Wheelchair Basketball on 27-30 May, all at the Manchester Regional Arena and Swimming at the Manchester Aquatics Centre on 31 May.

Follow the BT Paralympic World Cup on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BTPWC