Venue change shrugged off

LATE CHANGE: Dane Lett, seen here in action last weekend against Indians, says the change to the Wellington venue is "very disappointing". PHOTO/CHRIS KILFORD

DALEFIELD won't be using the late change of venue as an excuse if they happen to lose their Wellington premier division men's hockey semifinal match to Harbour City on Saturday.

Skipper Dane Lett said the decision of the Wellington Hockey Association to move the game from Clareville to the National Hockey Stadium in Wellington was "very disappointing" because the team were looking forward to playing such an important fixture on their home turf in front of what was expected to be a huge crowd.

"A lot of planning had been done to make it a special day and it's unfortunate that's all been for nothing. It would have been a big day for Wairarapa hockey, that's for sure."

Lett says the late change came after the Wellington association were reminded that the rules for the semifinals and finals had all matches being played at the National Hockey Stadium.

"I guess the rules are the rules, there's not a lot of point in making a big fuss about it."

Lett says the venue change should have absolutely no effect on the Dalefield performance.

After all, they had played there on a regular basis during a season in which their only loss to date came last weekend when they went down 3-4 to Indians at Clareville.

"We haven't lost in Wellington yet so we could hardly use that as an excuse if we get beaten this time, could we?"

Lett sees the loss to Indians as providing an important wake-up call for Dalefield because it illustrated what could happen if the attitude and commitment wasn't spot on from the word go.

"The first half was poor. It was like we expected to turn up and win without having to put in the effort. You can't give teams at this level three goals start and expect to pick them up. You have to be in the game right from the word go."

Lett is expecting stern opposition from Harbour City, whose record in preliminary round play was mixed, to say the least.

Their five wins, two draws and eight losses pales into insignificance against Dalefield's 12 wins, two draws and one loss but Lett says they will have taken a lot of confidence from a win over second-placed Hutt last weekend.

"That result showed just how dangerous they can be, they will be a real handful, we know that."

Having said that, Lett is confident that if a Dalefield side, which will be at full strength, play to their potential they should win through to the final.

"We've got classy players right across the park and there's no reason why we shouldn't get a good result. It comes down to everybody working hard and maintaining the pressure all the way through. Do that and we should be okay."