Dalefield will be aiming to rewrite the record books when they play Hutt in a Wellington premier division men's hockey match in Wellington tomorrow.
Previous games between the two teams have always ended with Hutt taking the spoils and while they will again start favourites on this occasion the prospects of
a Dalefield victory can't be ignored.
Especially after their impressive 2-0 win over last year's beaten finalists Northern United at Clareville last weekend.
Coach Laurie Juno said his players were "dead keen" to take on a Hutt team which has been strengthened by the acquisition of two former Wairarapa players Tim Herrick and Gareth Holdsworth plus a number of other new faces.
"We know how tough they will be but we also know that if we play to our potential then we can pull it off, "Juno said. "It's an exciting challenge and hopefully we're up for it."
Juno said Dalefield would be concentrating on playing their own style on hockey rather than trying to mix it up with Hutt who invariably looked to hustle and bustle their opposition into mistakes.
"It's probably going to be in our interests to slow the tempo of the game up a bit??to focus on keeping calm and doing the basics well," Juno said.
Meanwhile, the Dalefield women's team will have St Matthews Collegiate students Kylie Henderson and Taasha Henson back on deck when they too take on a formidable opponent, Eastern Hutt, at Clareville tomorrow.
Henderson, who plays in the forwards, and Henson, who will be in the halfline, were not available when Dalefield played Harbour City last weekend, a match which resulted in a 7-3 victory to the defending champions
On paper it was a comfortable enough win but Dalefield coach Andy Wilson is adamant his side will have to lift their effort several notches if they are to see off an Eastern Hutt side which may well contain at least a couple of Black Sticks.
"They (Eastern Hutt) are a very good unit who play a physical style of hockey and we'll need to be right on our mettle against them,"he said. "If they get on a roll they'll be really hard to stop."
Wilson said he would be stressing to his players the necessity of competing strongly for 50-50 ball. In games like this possession is absolutely vital and we can't afford to sit back and let them dominate in that area," he said.