Nodding off for a brief period in the first spell cost Dalefield dearly in their 3-2 loss to Hutt in the Wellington premier division men's hockey match played at Clareville on Sunday.
Dalefield started strongly and went 1-0 up after an early goal to Casey Nolan and continued to hold the
upper hand until about midway through the first half when in the space of five minutes Hutt scored two goals to take the lead.
"We went to sleep??..we dropped our intensity and they capitalised," Dalefield coach Laurie Juno said. "And , unfortunately, it made all the difference to the end result."
Dalefield did draw level again at 2-2 when Marcus Emery netted from a penalty corner but Hut hit back with their third goal about midway through the second spell and maintained their one goal advantage to the final whistle.
While disappointed at the loss Juno was pleased his team had shown improvement on their 2-0 defeat by University the previous day. Then they had failed to fire up at any stage of proceedings, so much so that the opposition 'keeper was very seldom placed under any pressure.
"We were definitely better than what we were on Saturday", Juno said of the performance against Hutt. "We played more as a team and created some good scoring opportunities. It was just that lapse of concentration in the first half?..that really hurt us."
The two defeats have seen Dalefield drop to fifth on the points table but Juno remains optimistic about their chances of making the all important top four playoffs.
"There are still a lot of matches to go and there's no reason why we can't do it," he said. "The ability is there, it's just a matter of producing it consistently from now on". Premier division results from the weekend:-
Men: Harbour-City Tawa 5, Hutt 4; University 2, Dalefield 0; Indians 6, Northern United 0; University 3, Indians 1; Hutt 3, Dalefield 2.
Women: University 8, Harbour City-Tawa 2; Dalefield 3, Hutt 2; Eastern Hutt 2, Indians 0; Harbour City-Tawa 3, Northern United 2; Hutt 5, Harbour City-Tawa 4..
