More committed Dalefield expected

Hockey

The heat will be on Marquis Dalefield when they confront Harbour City in a Wellington premier division men's hockey match at Clareville tomorrow.

Their management team is sure to have had plenty to say after the disappointment of their crushing 6-1 loss to Victoria University last weekend and a much more committed performance will be anticipated on this occasion.

The biggest frustration of the loss to University was the slow start which saw Dalefield trailing 3-0 before the halfway point of the first half had been reached and against a team of University's calibre there was little chance of Dalefield coming even close to making up the lost ground.

There was a glimmer of light in the Dalefield effort and that was the concession of just the one goal during a second half where they posed problems themselves for the University defence. Their only goal was an absolute beauty from Alex Sumenko-Bucknell, who fired in a reverse stick shot from the top of the circle and it was only the brilliance of Black Sticks keeper Kyle Pontifax who denied them on other occasions.

Apart from Sumenko-Bucknell's goal the individual highlight for Dalefield was the solidity of their keeper Orin Lockyer who, like Pontifax, made several telling saves during the course of the match.

Harbour City have made a solid start with four wins and a draw from eight games. They sit third with 13, behind Hutt (21) and Victoria University (20) and ahead of Indians (10), Northern United (7) and Dalefield (1).

Anything but a comfortable Harbour City win would be a surprise tomorrow but Dalefield can take hope from the fact they lost by just 2-1 to Harbour City.