Susannah Townsend might already be guaranteed an Olympic silver medal but will be desperate to make it Gold when GB's women face the Netherlands in the Olympic hockey final on Friday night.

The 27-year-old Canterbury Ladies star and Holcombe players Maddie Hinch, Sam Quek, Nic White and Shona McCallin helped their country overcome New Zealand 3-0 on Wednesday night to secure the first ever gold medal match appearance for GB's women.

It was a seventh straight win for GB and the Egerton ace at the Deodoro Stadium in Rio as they followed their group stage wins over Australia, India and Argentina with successes against Japan and USA last Saturday to book their place in the knockout stages.

A 3-1 victory against Spain in the last eight on Monday night was followed by the nailbiting progress against the Blacksticks, secured by an Alex Danson tap-in in the second period and sealed by penalty stroke conversions after the break from Helen Richardson-Walsh and Danson again.

The Netherlands - who claimed gold in Beijing 2008 and at London 2012 by beating Argentina in the final, while GB edged NZ again for bronze - saw-off Germany on penalty shuttles after a draw in their semi-final earlier on Wednesday evening.

GB coach and former Canterbury supremo Danny Kerry claimed: "That makes us the most successful GB women’s team ever at an Olympics. But there’s still one more game to go and they’re going to keep their feet on the ground.

“They executed brilliantly. They absolutely played how they’d been set out to do it and it really paid dividends. I was really proud of them playing under pressure in the second half. They kept playing forward trying to take opportunities and I’m really proud of that."

He added: “Holland in the final – they’ve probably got a bit of a point to prove after (losing to) the England team at the Europeans.

"I think it will be a tight, cagey affair. They have some talented players and they will probably start as red-hot favourites but we like it that way.

“We lost a very tight semi-final to Argentina four years ago. We’ve adapted some of our training to replicate some of thinking needed in tight games and we’ve learned some lessons.”