Dalefield produced their best performance of the season in drawing 5-5 with Hutt in the Wellington premier division men's hockey match played at Clareville on Saturday.
With Hutt lying second on the points table and Dalefield fifth a Hutt victory seemed inevitable but not only did Dalefield share the spoils they
actually looked on the way to a huge upset when they led 5-3 at one stage.
Dalefield coach Mark Fenwick said it was only the excellence of Hutt at penalty corners which stopped his team from taking the maximum points
"I think they only had six penalty corners all game and scored from five of them, we had no answer to them there," he said.
Fenwick was delighted, however, with the competitiveness of Dalefield in general play with forwards Mark Duxbury and Rowan Yeo constantly troubling the Hutt defence with their speed and skill.
Duxbury scored three of Dalefield's goals with Yeo netting the other two.
Also starring in what was a splendid overall team performance from Dalefield were Willie Waitere, Thomas Merriman and Greg Mason.
Fenwick said the draw still gave Dalefield a "rough chance" of making the top four playoffs but, more importantly, was proof they had the potential to trouble any side in the competition.
For the Dalefield women's team though Saturday was not the happiest of days with their 2-1 loss to Hutt in their Wellington premier division match at Clareville again highlighting their current inadequacies in the goal scoring department.
Coach Rochelle Retter said Dalefield had enough prime scoring chances in the first half to lead by four goals at the break when, in effect, the scores were level then at 1-1.
And it was a similar story in the second half with Dalefield often working themselves into good scoring positions but failing to capitalise.
"We're tending to hurry things in the circle, we need to be more composed and more patient," she said.
"It's not that we don't have the skills to score the goals it's just that our structures in that area aren't solid enough."
Their sole goal scorer Megan Parker was, in fact, Dalefield's best player on Saturday.
She started off at right half before moving into the forward line and coped well in both positions. Chloe Stevens was the pick of the defence.
