Dalefield men finally step up with 3-2 win

It was a case of saving their best until last when Dalefield beat Harbour City-Tawa 3-2 in their Wellington premier division men's hockey playoff match at the National Hockey Stadium on Saturday.
Not only was it Dalefield's first win of the season but it meant they ended up fifth in the six-team competition and therefore avoided any prospect of being involved in a promotion-relegation match in a few weeks time.
Greg Mason put Dalefield 1-0 up with a shot which went between the HCT 'keeper's pads but HCT equalised soon after with a well-executed goal and it was 1-1 at halftime.
The first two goals of the second half were both scored by Dalefield, the impressive Todd Sugrue netting the first with a reverse stick shot and then Nathan Shannahan finishing off a strong attack.
The latter came when they were down to 10 men, defender Camus Wyatt having been sin binned for a tackling offence.
The last say goal-wise came from HCT in the closing stages but Dalefield resisted further pressure for a deserved 3-2 victory, a result which reversed a 6-3 loss to HCT only six days earlier.
Coach Mark Fenwick said Dalefield had gone into the match with the idea of staying structured and composed while at the same time frustrating HCT with the tightness of their defence.
"It wasn't the sort of game where we needed to do anything flashy, we knew if we got a goal or two up it would create doubt in their minds and that's exactly what happened," he said.
"Patience was everything,"
Sugrue was in splendid form for Dalefield with Mason and Tobyn Yeo being the other standouts in what was a fine team effort.
"In games like this you are only as good as your weakest link and everybody stood up and was counted as far as we were concerned," Fenwick said.
The Dalefield coach said the win highlighted the steady progress made by his side through the 2007 club season.
"We've kept on improving and that's been the main focus really, we're a lot more competitive now than we were when we started,' he said.
Fenwick expects the bulk of this year's team to be available again in 2008 and already talk is of at least one or two very useful acquisitions joining the squad as well.
And, what's more, Fenwick himself is keen to continue as coach, saying he could see Dalefield being a much more competitive unit next year with this season's "learning experience" behind them.
The news for the Dalefield women's team on Saturday, however, was somewhat different than that for the men with their 4-2 defeat by Hutt in the playoff match for fifth and six in the their Wellington premier division series meaning the spectre of a promotion-relegation match still hangs over them.
Coch Rochelle Retter was "pretty disappointed" with the loss, especially after Dalefield had beaten Hutt comfortably the weekend before and were 2-0 up at halftime in this latest encounter.
She said Dalefield had probably had the better of a first half in which Emma Beaver and Ana-May Playle scored goals but had no answer to Hutt's improved second half effort.
"Overall it was a pretty average game of hockey.
"I don't think either side could feel terribly happy about how they played,' she said. "It looked like neither side actually wanted to be there, there was hardly any oomph in it at all."
Whether Dalefield will now be involved in a promotion-relegation match has yet to be confirmed but even if they are coach Retter believes their overall performance considering they lost 11 of last year's line-up has been nowhere as bad as bare results might suggest.
"Inexperience was always going to be a problem but, generally, we competed well and a lot of the players have definitely taken a step forward," she said.
Retter said she would be putting her name forward again for coach next season and expectations were that of this year's squad all but a couple of players would be available then.