Home ground gives Dalefield advantage against Indians

Home advantage has been exactly that for Dalefield in their Wellington premier division hockey matches this season, and they are hoping to continue the trend when they meet Indians in a semi-final match there on Saturday.
In eight games played at Clareville this season Dalefield have yet to taste defeat, having won on six occasions and drawn twice.
Conversely, their record at the National Hockey Stadium in Wellington is not nearly as impressive, consisting as it does of one win, four draws and two losses.
Dalefield and Indians have met on three occasions already in 2006 with Dalefield winning the first encounter at Clareville 6-3 and the next two clashes at the NHS resulting in draws, the first of them 5-5 and the second 2-2
As those statistics would suggest both teams have been prolific in the goal scoring department with Dalefield currently topping the premier division list in that respect with 55 and Indians second highest on 48.
The two other semi-finalists, Eastern Hutt and Hutt, have scored 46 goals apiece.
Dalefield will go into Saturday's semi-final in a golden run of form, having not lost since they were hammered 7-1 by Eastern Hutt in their seventh game of the season
And they shouldn't lack anything on the score of fitness considering that they beat University 1-0 at Clareville last Saturday and then travelled to Wellington on Monday night to play a catch-up match with Hutt, which they drew 4-4.
Dalefield were without two of their key players in Janeen Bruce and Karen James for the Hutt match, Bruce being rested because of a foot injury and James unavailable because of work commitments.
James will definitely be back on deck this weekend and coach Kim Henson is confident Bruce, a former Wairarapa, Canterbury and Wellington representative, will take her place in the starting line-up as well. However, he admits there is only a 50-50 chance of her lasting a whole game.
With Dalefield's semi-final spot already guaranteed the result of the Hutt game was not of major importance but it did mean that Dalefield ended as top seeds after the preliminary rounds, and in such a keenly-contested league that in itself was something special
Dalefield seemed a strong winning chance when they raced out to 3-0 lead but lapses in concentration allowed Hutt to recover the lost ground and share the spoils.
"We did a lot of good things but we tended to lose our focus at times and they (Hutt) were quick to capitalise," Henson said. "It was a timely reminder of how important it is to maintain the pressure all the way through a game."
Henson has huge respect for their semi-final opponents Indians, who have made splendid progress this season under the watchful eye of the man widely tipped to be the next coach of the national senior women's side Chris Leslie.
He has introduced a number of skilled players of non-Indian descent into the team and has encouraged them to play an attractive and entertaining brand of hockey.
Henson said Indians would test the defensive capabilities of Dalefield but he is confident his side will measure up in that department.
"The defence has been pretty solid all season and they are well aware of the need to mark up closely this weekend," he said. "You can't give teams like Indians space to move and we have to ensure that doesn't happen."
Henson is confident too that Dalefield's attack will score enough goals to keep their noses in front with their main attribute there being that they don't depend on just a couple of players to keep the scoreboard ticking over. "A number of the team are quite capable of scoring goals and that can be crucial in tight situations," he said.
The full record of the two semi-finalists in 2006 is:-
DALEFIELD: lost to Hutt 2-4, beat Indians 6-3, beat Eastern Hutt 2-1, beat Harbour City-Tawa 7-1, drew with Victoria University 4-4, drew with Indians 5-5, lost to Eastern Hutt 1-7, beat Harbour-City Tawa 8-2, drew with Victoria University 1-1, drew with Indians 2-2, drew with Eastern Hutt 0-0, beat Harbour City-Tawa 8-0, beat Hutt 4-1, beat Victoria University 1-0, drew with Hutt 4-4.
INDIANS: drew with Victoria University 1-1, lost to Dalefield 3-6, beat Harbour City-Tawa 5-1, beat Hutt 3-1, beat Eastern Hut 5-2, drew with Dalefield 5-5, beat Harbour City-Tawa 5-0, lost to Hutt 3-4, lost to Eastern Hutt 1-2, lost to Victoria University 0-1, drew with Dalefield 2-2, beat Harbour City-Tawa 7-1, drew with Hutt 2-2, drew with Eastern Hutt 2-2, beat Victoria University 4-3.
COMPETITION POINTS: at the end of the preliminary round were: Dalefield 45, Eastern Hutt 44, Hutt 40, Indians 38, Victoria University 29, Harbour City-Tawa 2.