The incentive of wanting to play the same team again in the playoffs for fifth and sixth this coming weekend helped Dalefield to a 3-1 win over Hutt in their Wellington premier division women's hockey match at Clareville on Saturday.
Coach Rochelle Retter said Dalefield were keen to play Hutt rather
than Karori in the game which will decide whether or not they are involved in an end-of-season promotion-relegation match and Saturday's victory ensured that would happen.
"The way we see it Hutt are more predictable than Karori and we probably have a better chance against them, "Retter said.
"It was a good incentive on Saturday, we really wanted that one."
With Ana-May Playle scoring a goal within the first 30secs Dalefield made a flying start and further goals to Harriet Cameron and Jodie Graham had them 3-0 up at halftime. Hutt scored the only goal of the second half but Retter said the message to Dalefield had been to keep their discipline and ensure victory was achieved. "It wasn't so much a matter of scoring more goals, we just wanted to ensure they never got into a possible winning position," she said. "They got a bit rattled and that's what we wanted."
The Dalefield men's team had a double header over the weekend, losing to Hutt 2-1 and Harbour City-Tawa 6-3. Coach Mark Fenwick said the Hutt match was as close as the final score would indicate with Dalefield coming from 2-0 down to trail 2-1 with still 15 minutes of play remaining.
"We probably deserved a draw, we created as many scoring chances as they did," he said.
Fenwick was not too disappointed with the loss to Harbour City-Tawa either, saying both teams were already guaranteed to playoff for fifth and sixth this coming weekend and Dalefield was keen to keep something in reserve.
"It would have silly to go out there and show them how we are going to play next time round, we wanted to keep them guessing in that regard," he said.
