Midfield key to Dalefield prospects

Dalefield will be aiming to dominate the midfield battle in their Wellington premier division men's hockey match with Hutt at Clareville tomorrow.
Player-coach Willie Schaefer believes who comes out best there will have gone a long way towards winning what should be a close, hard-fought encounter.
"Gaining control in the midfield is vital, both offensively and defensively," Schaefer said. "A lot of the play revolves around that area and we have to be smarter than they are."
Schaefer is also looking for greater overall consistency from Dalefield after they turned a 3-1 lead into to a 5-3 loss against University last weekend.
They had a golden 25-minute period just after halftime in that game, during which they scored all three of their goals, but the last 15 minutes were "very average" and University stormed back to take the honours.
"It's all about attitude and mindset, if you relax at any part of any game at this level you get punished," Schaefer said.
As the beaten finalists last season, Hutt will go into tomorrow's game as favourites. But boosting Dalefield's confidence will be the knowledge that they twice had the better of them in three clashes in 2010.