Dalefield succumbs to jitters

Dalefield failed to make use of home advantage with both the men's and women's sides succumbing to early season jitters in the Wellington premier hockey competition at Clareville on Saturday.
Despite heading into the game with a decent pre-season build-up under their belts, the men could not withstand title favourites Northern United who cruised out to a comfortable 4-0 victory.
But it was the women who will feel particularly aggrieved after throwing in an error-riddled first half effort that leaked two goals against an energetic Karori outfit.
With both coaches fielding young sides it was a case of who could overcome their nerves first and Karori, making their debut in the competition, took full advantage to squeeze out a match-winning lead before the interval. Their two goals were enough to seal victory with the scorers not troubled in the second spell.
Dalefield women's coach Rochelle Retter was openly disappointed with her side's season opener.
"The first half was basically panic hockey, we just didn't settle down at all and gave away far too much possession," she said.
"Karori are a good side. They're young and very quick and will cause a few upsets I reckon.
"But we were very scrappy in the first half and didn't cope with the pressure very well, which let us down."
However, Retter said she was very pleased with how the team responded in the second stanza despite failing to take advantage of several penalty corners.
"We had our opportunities but weren't quite able to make use of them.
"Ana-May (Playle) had a few shots go wide and one hit the post and Jodie Graham had an excellent game so we can take several positives away definitely.
"We controlled the ball a lot better and played more like a unit, which I was very happy with."
Earlier in the afternoon the men were kept on the back foot by a dominant Northern United side.
The visitors controlled possession but struggled to breach the defence of rookie goalkeeper Orin Lockier, with Dalefield entering the sheds a solitary goal down at the break.
However, the home side could not shake the constant turnovers and offered up nothing of any substance on attack, leaving their defence to attempt to limit the damage.
Coach Mark Fenwick said there was plenty to work on before next week but he would not be making any rash changes to a side he thought showed a lot of fight.
"We spent an awful amount of time defending but we showed we could handle the pressure, which is extremely promising," he said.
"We've just got to find out how to hold the ball through the midfield because against a class side like United you can't keep giving the ball back after one phase."