Former Canterbury and Wellington representative Janeen Bruce will play up front for Dalefield in their Wellington premier division women's hockey match with Eastern Hutt at Clareville tomorrow.
Bruce will partner her sister Ana Playle in the forward line in a move which coach Kim Henson hopes will provide extra zip in
the Dalefield attack.
"We need to build our strike power and having Janeen there should be a big assist in that respect," Henson said. "She is a proven goal scorer and that could be crucial."
Dalefield go into tomorrow's game on the back of a convincing 6-3 win over Indians, but they will need to lift their performance even further to cope with an Eastern Hutt side which registered a 3-2 win over Hutt at their latest appearance.
That result provides a good illustration of the challenge facing Dalefield as they lost 4-2 to Hutt three weeks back.
Henson is expecting Eastern Hutt to play the game at pace, and he knows the dangers of Dalefield allowing them to control possession for lengthy periods.
"We can't afford to sit back and wait for them to come to us?.we have to close them down as quickly as we can," he said.
The Dalefield men's team is hopeful of breaking their duck in their Wellington premier division competition, when they come up against Victoria University at the National Hockey Stadium in Wellington.
Coach Craig Nielsen said Dalefield took a number of positives away from their 6-3 loss to the powerful Indians side two weeks ago, and believes they are capable of toppling a Victoria University side which has followed a 1-3 loss to Hutt with a 4-3 success over Harbour City-Tawa.
Nielsen said his side would be looking to emulate their second half effort against Indians, where they matched their opposition in most departments.
"We controlled our ball well and our short passing game was effective???it's now a matter of getting those things working well over a whole game," he said.
