Goals better than winning, says coach

Dalefield women's hockey coach Rochelle Retter won't be too bothered if their team loses their Wellington premier division match with competition favourites Eastern Hutt in Wellington tomorrow providing they score some goals.
The two sides will meet in the semi-finals the following weekend and, not surprisingly, that is the game Retter desperately wants to win.
"Tomorrow is all about getting prepared for the semis so it's more about building confidence in the areas where we are struggling," Retter said.
"And goal scoring is the big one, we need to make some decent progress there."
The Dalefield coach is
convinced her team's recent inadequacies in the goal scoring department aren't caused by any lack of skill.
Rather it was more a case of losing composure when prime scoring opportunities consistently went by the board.
"Get a few goals in and you can almost guarantee things would change.
"It's more mental than
anything else at the moment," she said.
While Eastern Hutt have
had just the two losses this season, their own confidence
will have been dented to
some degree by a surprise 5-3 loss to Indians last weekend and Retter knows they will also be keen to rectify that situation tomorrow by piling on the goals themselves.
And that they are capable of doing just that is borne out by statistics which show they have scored 48 goals this season, eight more than any other premier division side and 19 more than Dalefield.
"They'll expect their forwards to run all over us so if we can hold them defensively it'll be a big boost for next weekend too," Retter said.
The Dalefield men are already guaranteed of playing off for fifth and sixth in this season's Wellington premier division series but that doesn't mean they won't be taking tomorrow's match with Harbour City-Tawa in Wellington seriously.
Coach Mark Fenwick said his players were all smiles after
their 8-3 victory over cellar-dwellers University last
weekend and with Harbour
City-Tawa in the semi-finals
they were keen to finish preliminary round play with a notable scalp.
"We're absolutely sure it's a game we can win, and that's the only result we are after," Fenwick said.
Harbour City-Tawa too will be doing everything they can to produce a win because maximum points could mean they avoid playing the unbeaten Indians in the semis.
"They will be a bit anxious about this one and if we can create doubts in their minds by getting a goal or two up early on it would have to be a help to our chances," Fenwick said.