'Poor' Dalefield's first defeat

SKILLS: Aaron Oakley of Dalefield looks to juggle his way past an Indians defender.

Coach Willie Schaefer was making no excuses for Dalefield's 4-3 loss to Indians in their Wellington premier division men's hockey competition match at Clareville on Saturday.

It was Dalefield's first defeat of the season and while there was merit in a second-half effort which saw them come from 3-0 down at the break to lose by just a solitary goal, Schaefer described the overall performance as "disappointing and poor".

"In all honesty we deserved to lose, you can't expect to give a quality side like Indians a three- goal start, you just can't. Overall they were better than us, no argument."

The need to start strongly and place early pressure on their opposition was very much the talk in the Dalefield camp leading into the game but, as it happened, they struggled to get any intensity and consistency into their play throughout the first half.

"I don't know whether it was complacency or not but the attitude was nowhere near where it needed to be, it was like we were just going through the motions and expecting the goals to come," Schaefer said. "And we were pretty average on defence as well."

The second half saw a more urgent Dalefield and they created a number of prime scoring opportunities through some slick attacks but, as their coach said, the damage had already been done.

Aaron Oakley was probably the pick of the Dalefield players while Rowan Yeo, Dane Lett and Joseph Robertson got themselves on the scoresheet.

Saturday's fixture was the last of the preliminary rounds in the premier division series, with Dalefield's dominance there highlighted by a points table which had them finish on 40, followed by Hutt 27, Indians 24, Harbour City 17, Northern United 14 and Victoria University.

The semi-finals will be played next Saturday, with Dalefield meeting Harbour City at Clareville at 1.15pm and Hutt taking on Indians at the National Hockey Stadium, also at 1.15pm.

Coach Schaefer said the challenge for Dalefield over the next week was to get themselves back into the mindset where they could produce their best form against a dangerous Harbour City outfit, which will be coming off the back of an upset 3-2 victory over Hutt. "Hopefully the kick in the bum Indians gave us will do the trick, it was a good lesson in what can happen if you don't turn up right from the word go."