By Jason Hughes, PA International

England's female gymnasts took silver in the team final, 24 hours after watching the men strike gold at the Commonwealth Games.

Beth Tweddle, Nicola Willis, Katy Lennon, Becky Owen and Lizzy Line repeated their second place from four years ago in Kuala Lumpur, again finishing behind Australia.

The quintet held off the challenge of Canada for silver, with 17-year-old Willis holding her nerve on the final apparatus - the beam - to ensure England pipped the North Americans by just 0.1 points.

The result flashing on the giant scoreboard brought the crowd inside Manchester's G-Mex Centre to its feet, with scenes reminiscent of those that greeted the men's triumph on Friday night.

European Bronze medallist Tweddle, from Liverpool, said: "There has been a great atmosphere inside the arena. We watched them (the men's team) get gold and you have to admit they did a fantastic job. But it didn't put any more pressure on ourselves.

"We knew we had a job to do and that we had to just go out there and do it.

"We had to forget about what they did and think about what we could achieve."

The host nation had looked assured of finishing behind hot favourites Australia, who were seventh in this event at the Sydney Olympics, before a late rally from the Canadians ensured a nerve-racking finale.

Willis of the South Essex club was the last to go in the competition, and England were lying 0.4 points behind the Canadians.

But the 17-year-old scored 8.7 points on the beam, just enough on the scoring system to put the hosts into second for a deserved silver.

"I was really nervous, but I knew what had to be done," said Willis, the British floor champion.

"The support from the fans really helped me. This is my biggest achievement and it makes it even better that it was in front of our home crowd."

The English girls always knew they would have to be on top form and the Aussies would have to slip up if the gold medal was to go with the host nation.

Australia though were in pole position from the first of the four apparatus - floor, vault, beam and uneven bars - that make up this event.

The Aussies had too much experience to throw away their advantage with two members of their line-up, Allana Slater and Alexandra Croak, remaining from the team that finished seventh in this event at the Sydney Olympics.

All of the Aussies have been coached at the Australian Institute of Sport since the age of five, while Croak left home aged 10 to join the sporting academy and pursue her career as a gymnast full-time.

Slater, the only one left from the 1998 Commonwealth success, said: "We have a fantastic spirit in our team and I'm so happy that we achieved what we had set out to do."

Croak added: "We knew before the last rotation that we had won. It's a great feeling because we had all trained really hard, so to go and then perform equally as well is very rewarding."

England's girls, however, can be pleased with their own displays in front of an appreciative Manchester crowd.

South African-born Tweddle was particularly impressive on her specialist apparatus, the uneven bars.

The 17-year-old scored a dazzling 9.475, even a higher mark than when she became the first British female to win a medal at a European Championships, taking bronze earlier this year.

Wales finished in fifth place, while Scotland took sixth and Northern Ireland were one position further back.