There was no success for Dalefield when the Wellington premier division hockey competitions got under way on Saturday but their women's team showed sharp improvement from last season in losing by just 2-1 to Indians,the 2007 runners-up.
What's more, Dalefield coach Rochelle Retter believed her side deserved at least a draw
from a match which saw them actually have a greater share of possession than Indians and create at least as many scoring opportunities as well.
"We were competitive in every area, there were a lot of positives to come of the game,", she said.
Indians opened the scoring after just two minutes but Dalefield struck back quickly with a Danya Yeo goal which evened things up at 1-1.A second Indians goal late in that spell had them ahead 2-1 at the break and there was no scoring action in a hotly-contested second half.
The manner in which Dalefield opened up the Indians defence was illustrated by statistics which showed that while they forced up to five penalty corners Indians never managed one. "We put ourselves in position to score more than they did but unfortunately we couldn't finish things off," Retter said.
In a Dalefield side lacking in experience it was one of the old hands in Karen James who emerged as possibly their player of the match although others like Laura Walsh, Chloe Stevens,Jody Graham and Libby Noema also had strong games.
The Dalefield men were given a lesson by defending champions Indians in their opening match of the 2008 season, being on the end of a comprehensive 12-0 drubbing.
Coach Mark Fenwick said while Dalefield very definitely played below expectations they were up against an Indians team which was on fire in all aspects of play.
"We should have been paying to watch them. They were so slick and so fast that we might as well have been spectators at times,"he said. "?t was like we weren't on the same pitch, that's how classy they were."
Fenwick said the wealth of possession they obtained meant Indians dominated the action to the point where Dalefield's star-studded forward line spearheaded by Rowan Yeo and Jesse Workman got very few chances to stretch their legs in an attacking sense.
The Dalefield coach said it was not all doom and gloom though with several likely first stringers not being available for Saturday's match and there was the comfort of knowing that what would probably be their toughest assignment of the season was already behind them.
