Dalefield at well below full strength

Dalefield will be well below full strength when they take on Indians in a Wellington premier division women's hockey match at Clareville on Saturday but coach Nigel Goodin is still optimistic of a strong showing.
Goodin was "very pleased" with Dalefield's 3-0 win over Hutt in their opening game of the 2009 season last weekend with the final scoreline telling nothing about the way they had dominated the action.
"We probably should have scored another three or four goals, maybe even more," Goodin said. "There were a few combination issues but considering it was our first serious hit out together that was always likely to happen."
Particularly pleasing for Goodin was the solidness of Wairarapa College youngster Liana Johnson in goal and the midfield excellence of another Wairarapa College player in Libby Noema and Brooke Taylor, who has transferred from Indians and already impresses as a valuable acquisition. Noema scored one of the Dalefield goals with others going to Ana-May Playle and Jade Foreman.
Dalefield are at home at Clareville to Indians this Saturday and will have to do without the services of no fewer than five players & Ana-May Playle, Brooke Taylor, Abby Hill, Amanda Pottinger and Jade Foreman. It's a situation which Goodin admits will test their playing resources although the problem has been lessened by him being able to draw on experienced players such as Jodi Graham, Tania Scott and Kelly Govan as temporary replacements.
"Obviously we are delighted to have players of their calibre on stand by, it makes my job just that much easier," Goodin said. "They understand what's required of them, we know they won't let us down."
Indians came with one goal of upsetting defending champions Eastern Hutt last weekend and Goodin is anticipating them providing formidable opposition on Saturday. Leah Kershaw, who played for Indians last season, will be part of the Dalefield side while Indians will have two ex-Dalefield players in Holly Gaskin and Tara Hall in their squad.
The Dalefield men couldn't have wished for a more difficult start to their 2009 campaign when they fronted up to defending champions Hutt last weekend and after being behind by just 3-1 at halftime they were on the end of a 12-2 beating.
With three members of the Wairarapa under-16s in their line-up, Dalefield fielded a very young and inexperienced side and coach Mark Fenwick who was forced to play in goal himself was pleased with the way they competed against such high quality opposition.
"I know we got well beaten but considering what we were up against we didn't do too badly, it certainly could have been worse, "Fenwick said. "They (Hutt) are very slick , any lapses and they punish you."
Outstanding on defence for Dalefield was Willie Schaefer whose workrate was remarkably high and he will again be at the forefront when his team takes on Indians at Clareville this Saturday.
Indians beat last season's cellar dwellers Victoria University by just 5-2 last weekend and will come to Clareville as hot favourites but while Fenwick accepts his team will be underdogs he is hopeful of them making a decent game of it.