Great Britain skip David Murdoch watched in agony as his team missed out on an Olympic gold medal match by just two inches in a tense curling semi-final against Finland at Pinerolo on Wednesday night.
Finland's Markku Uusipaavalniemi sent down the decisive final stone of the match to clinch a 4-3 victory and leave Murdoch's shell-shocked men to contemplate a bronze medal play-off on Friday.
Murdoch admitted he thought he might have done enough after setting up a perfect guard, and he and his team sat stunned on the sidelines for at least 10 minutes after their "heart-wrenching" defeat.
Murdoch said: "I thought he hadn't made it with the final stone but you have to take your hat off to the guy because it was an extremely hard shot to make and he made it.
"We are happy with the way we played because we forced them into pressure shots and we just got a bit unlucky on that last end. It's tough but in curling it always comes down to a matter of inches."
Finland held the advantage from the start when they began with the crucial last stone as a result of finishing top of the round-robin group stage.
Murdoch wrested that initiative by forcing the Finns to take a point in the second end and relinquish last-stone advantage but he failed to capitalise.
After two blank ends it was Murdoch's turn to give away the hammer for a single point, pulling the score back to 1-1 but putting Finland back in control.
Uusipaavalniemi took out a British score with the last stone of the sixth end and put his side, who had come into the competition as underdogs, firmly in control.
In the seventh end Murdoch had a sniff of a dramatic double take-out which would have scored three for his side but instead opted for the safer option of a single score and narrowing the deficit to 3-2.
Great Britain clawed their way back level after a penultimate end error by Uusipaavalniemi but it still left Finland going into the final end with the decisive stone or 'hammer'.
And despite Murdoch's best endeavours the 6ft 4in Finn kept his cool to curl in the final stone and seal Britain's place in Friday afternoon's bronze medal play-off against the United States.
Murdoch admitted his team faced a struggle to raise themselves for a bronze medal match having come so close to a shot at emulating Rhona Martin's British triumph of four years ago.
The 27-year-old Lockerbie farmer looked stunned by the manner of the defeat while team-mate Euan Byers was close to tears as he faced the world's press shortly afterwards.
Murdoch said: "We are still going into an Olympic medal match and we have to make sure we are going home with a medal after all this because that is what we came here to do.
"I think we have done everything possible and trained as hard as possible and the whole team has played with a lot of confidence and spirit.
"Playing in the final would have been the biggest thing ever and it is going to be a huge test of our team to get over the disappointment and make sure we come out firing on Saturday.
"If we come away without a medal we will be even more disappointed than we are right now because we really want to get at least something out of this week."
Murdoch's men face a tough test against the improving United States who came up short against Canada, a dramatic five-stone win in the penultimate end sealing the Canadians' 11-5 victory.
British speed-skater Jonathan Eley booked his place in Saturday's quarter-finals of the men's 500 metres by finishing second in his heat tonight.
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