Little wonder Dalefield player-coach Willie Schaefer is labelling his team's Wellington premier division men's hockey match with Hutt on Saturday as a "crunch game".
Having dropped from third to fifth on the table after losing 4-2 to Victoria University at Clareville on Saturday and 5-3 to Harbour City-Tawa at the National
Hockey Stadium in Wellington on Monday, Dalefield are on a downhill spiral that needs to be halted if they are to remain in serious contention for a semifinal spot.
"It's a crunch game. We need to get that winning feeling back," Schaefer said of the Hutt fixture which will also be played at the NHS.
"We have to work harder for longer, that's all there is to it."
Schaefer was critical of Dalefield's lack of urgency against Victoria University and he was frustrated at there being little improvement in that aspect of their play against Harbour City-Tawa two days later, especially during a first half at the end of which they trailed 5-1 and were facing a huge defeat.
"Quite honestly, that first half effort was pretty average stuff," Schaefer said. "Nobody seemed to get out of first gear. There was no energy there.
"You can't be four goals down at halftime at this sort of level and expect to pick up the lost ground. It's just about impossible."
That Dalefield were capable of pushing Harbour City-Tawa close was illustrated in the second spell when, after some stern words from Schaefer, they lifted their game and scored the only two goals of the half.
"We did get better but then we had to," Schaefer said.
"If we had started like we finished, it would have been close, so I guess that's a positive but overall it still wasn't good enough, not by a long way."
Talented youngster Hugh Taylor provided one of the few pluses for Dalefield.
He usually plays at striker but was in midfield on this occasion and did well enough for Schaefer to admit he is now thinking of leaving him there for the Hutt encounter.
"He applied himself well and you couldn't say that about too many of us," Schaefer said of Taylor.
The only other Dalefield player to come out of the game with his reputation intact was another midfielder, Isaac Berry, who covered plenty of ground on attack and defence.
