Britain and Ireland mounted a Seve Trophy fightback at The Wynyard near Middlesbrough today as they won three of today's fourballs against Continental Europe.
But following a blunder from Bradley Dredge it is still Continental Europe who lead going into the weekend.
Jose Maria Olazabal's side hold a 6-4 advantage thanks to Emanuele Canonica and Maarten Lafeber beating Dredge and Stephen Dodd on the last, the Welsh pair having had to concede the opening hole when it was discovered Dredge had 15 clubs in his bag.
Beaten 4-1 in the opening fourballs, Colin Montgomerie spoke to Ian Poulter about the fact he was not around the 18th green as the first day's play on Thursday was coming to a vital conclusion.
The colourful Englishman was away practising as Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley lost to French pair Thomas Levet and Jean-Francois Remesy.
“He was the only man who was not with his team,” commented Montgomerie, who walked over to Poulter and told him what he thought.
“That's fine, but there are times to work on your game and we all felt that was not the appropriate time.”
Poulter’s practice obviously paid off as he combined with Nick Dougherty for a 5&4 win over Remesy and Levet.
David Howell and Paul Casey and then Harrington and McGinley also hit back from first day defeats, but Montgomerie and Graeme McDowell, Britain and Ireland's only winners on day one, were defeated by Thomas Bjorn and Henrik Stenson.
If Dodd and Dredge had won the sides would have been level, but all square with four to play Canonica chipped in for eagle at the 400-yard 15th - he was only 30 yards from the green with his drive.
Then, needing to take the last for a half, the home pair both flew the green with their downwind pitches.
Dredge then explained an error at the start which brought back memories of their compatriot Ian Woosnam four years ago when leading the Open championship.
"It was a sickening feeling when I saw the four-wood was still in the bag," he said. "I thought it meant I was out of the hole and Steve could continue, but then the referee said it was loss of hole.
"It was really annoying to give a hole away cheaply like that - that was the difference."
Howell and Casey began their team's revival with birdies at the first five holes. And their front nine 28, seven under, was then matched by Poulter and Dougherty.
Poulter then started the inward half with three more birdies in four holes and when the match ended on the 14th green they were 10 under.
Howell and Casey claimed the notable scalps of Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez by the same margin and were nine under.
Howell stated: "It was a disastrous day yesterday and we had a good team meeting. We had to buck our ideas up.
"Monty stuck with the same pairings and gave us all a chance. We just changed the order and went with strength from the top."
Harrington and McGinley were sent out first and were an approximate eight under in beating Swedes Niclas Fasth and Peter Hanson three and one.
