Dalefield player of the match Georgia Percy on the ball. PHOTO/JADE CVETKOV
By Gary Caffell
Depleted they may have been but it didn’t show as Dalefield hammered Indians 5-0 in their Wellington premier division women’s hockey match at Clareville on Saturday.
With more than a handful of regular squad members missing for various reasons, Dalefield had to call in three of their club’s Wairarapa premier one side to ensure they had at least that many players on the subs bench.
But that did not detract from what, in the end, was a splendid all-round performance from the defending champions.
Indians might not be amongst the front runners in the premier division series but they are a useful side who were, due to the circumstances, expected to give Dalefield a decent run for their money.
As it happened the home side outgunned them in all departments.
Their attacking play lacked nothing on the score of energy and flair and while there was the odd anxious moment on defence they scrambled well enough to keep their opposition scoreless.
Coach Michael O’Connor was understandably delighted with Dalefield’s effort and heaped special praise on the three “ring-ins” — Ana-May Gudsell, Georgia Percy and Lauren Mahoney — all of whom had strong games.
Gudsell and Percy both got on the scoresheet twice and Percy was named her team’s player of the match.
The other goal scorer was Kelsey Smith, whose efforts also deserved special mention as she took the field with a couple of injured fingers which were taped to ease some of the pain.
The Dalefield men’s team weren’t as clinical in the attacking circle as coach Willie Schaefer would have liked them to be in their Wellington premier division match with Naenae, also at Clareville, but still came away with a comfortable 6-1 success.
“We created a lot of scoring opportunities and while six did give us the bonus point we should probably have got another three or four goals at least,” Schaefer said.
“The build-up work was really good but we were a bit soft in the circle and turned over too much ball there.”
Having said that Schaefer was also quick to pay tribute to the solidness of the Naenae defence, particularly their goalkeeper who was top value in tight pressure situations.
“They were a gutsy side, they didn’t give up easily.”
