Preston Grasshoppers vs. Macclesfield – Kick Off 2.30pm
Sean Taylor out paces the Caldy defence on his way to scoring his fiftieth try for Hoppers
Team News
Michael Lough shuffles his pack around for this Saturday’s visit of Macclesfield and welcomes back skipper Dom Moon to captain the side along with Phil Baines in the centres who was missing last week at Caldy.
1 Danny Madden, 2 Brad Tuff, 3 Pete Altham, 4 Ally Murray, 5 Sam Wallbank, 6 Phil Mills, 7 Will Lees, 8 Dominic Moon (Capt.) 9 Sam Whyte, 10 Lloyd Davies, 11 Matt Gargett, 12 Jack Ward, 13 Phil Baines, 14 Conor Trueman, 15 Sean Taylor.
Replacements:
16 Andy Irving, 17 Olly Farley, 18 Olly Yates 19 Tom McGuinness, 20 Sam Kindred.
Preview
Hoppers host table topping Macclesfield this Saturday and will be looking to both get back to winning ways and avenge the defeat at Priory Park earlier in the season where they felt the rub of the green went against them.
Whilst our opponents will be hoping for the full five points from their visit to Lightfoot Green, they’ll also be looking forward a couple of weeks for their visit to the Northern Echo Arena and a fixture which will no doubt decide who gets automatic promotion, who goes into a play-off game and who misses out altogether.
Macclesfield head the table at the moment with 126 points with Stourbridge second on 121 and Darlington Mowden Park with 116 points and a game in hand at lowly Sheffield Tigers to be played on Easter Saturday.
Hoppers winning run came to an unexpected halt last Saturday at Caldy in a game that they could, and most probably should have won. It was a case of missed opportunities when they had the home side under pressure, but the hosts played to their strengths scoring a converted try just before half time and eventually turned round a thirteen points to three deficit running out single point winners.
Competitive games between the two clubs go back to 1993 when the first meeting took place at Lightfoot Green on the 6th of November, Hoppers taking the spoils eighteen points to ten.
There have been eighteen meetings between the two clubs at First Team level, nine wins to Preston Grasshoppers and eight to Macclesfield with one game drawn thirty six all. Victories in league fixtures sees Macclesfield having the advantage by seven to five, winning the last four encounters.
Fixtures for Hoppers other senior sides this coming weekend include;
Hoppers 3 vs. Rossendale 2 (Away)
Hoppers 4 vs. Rochdale 3 (Away)
Hoppers 5 vs. Rossendale 3 (Away)
Hoppers 6 vs. Clitheroe 2 (Home)
Photograph courtesy of Mike Forshaw
