Coach keen to break the ?stadium curse

The National Hockey Stadium hasn't been the happiest of hunting grounds for the Dalefield women's hockey team this season but coach Kim Henson is confident they can buck that trend when they meet Eastern Hutt in the Wellington premier division grand final there on Saturday.
Henson sees Dalefield's record of just the one win, four draws and two losses at the NHS as a slice of history which will count for nothing come the weekend.
Most of those matches have been played on the No.2 turf which provides a bouncier surface than Dalefield's home venue of Clareville but Saturday's game will be on the No.1 turf which plays similar to Clareville where Dalefield went nine matches without defeat..
" Mistrapping can be a problem on the bouncier turf but we won't have to worry about that this time??. there will be no excuses in that regard," Henson said.
The Dalefield coach is mindful though that if victory is to be achieved over an Eastern Hutt side which has internationals spearheading their attack and defence they will need to come up a notch from their 3-2 semi-final over Indians last weekend.
That effort did speak volumes for the character and resolve of the Dalefield side but they struggled to get any consistency into their penalty corners, an area of play likely to be vital in Saturday's game.
Henson said the organisation at penalty corners had been fine tuned at training this week with more options being formulated.
"They (Eastern Hutt) have an outstanding 'keeper and it's crucial we have variety in our play there," he said. "Fortunately we do have a number of potential goal scorers in our side so we don't have to rely on just one or two to do the business for us."
Henson knows too that Dalefield's own defence will come under the hammer in the grand final and he doesn't need reminding that the last time the two teams met Eastern Hutt prevailed by a resounding 7-1.
"Yes, if we are at all tentative in our defence they will be quick to capitalise," he said. "They have forwards who are fast and skilful and we have to close them down."
Henson is adamant though that the 7-1 loss was more a case of Dalefield playing badly than Eastern Hutt outclassing them.
"We let ourselves down then?.we just didn't compete in any area," he said. "But we havn't lost a game since so I guess you could say it was a blessing in disguise."
Henson said the big aim for Dalefield on Saturday was to dominate possession which in itself would be the best way of stopping the opposition forwards from exercising any form of dominance on proceedings.
"We want to force them into situations where they are forced to take risks and give us chances to break away," he said.
The Dalefield coach said his side was also intent on playing the game at pace, thereby backing any advantage they will have in fitness to take its toll over the closing stages.
"We have been finishing very strongly at the end of our games lately and that will be a plus if its gets tight towards the end ," he said.
Henson is also hopeful of Dalefield continuing a recent habit of scoring at least one goal in the opening stanzas of the match.
"Get one up in a final early on and you've got the other side in catch up mode," he said. "The mental pressures become so much greater then."