Hoppers travel to unbeaten Caldy

Date: 11 November 2019

Caldy vs. Preston Grasshoppers, 16th November 2019 – KO 2:15 pm

Preston Grasshoppers head for The Wirral and Paton Field the home of Caldy RUFC next Saturday to play the side who are currently nine from nine and trail league leaders Fylde by a single point who have played a game more.

Last Saturday saw Hoppers lose again in a game many thought would end their current losing sequence. The visitors forwards proved to be the difference between the two and Chester eventually ran out comfortable winners.

Hoppers hosts this week look to have both eyes set on a quick return to National 1 after their two season stay at the next level coming to an end last April. Saturday’s test will be a formidable one for the visitors, hopefully they will travel across the River Mersey with some confidence after learning lessons from recent reverses.

Caldy’s promotion at the end of the 2016/17 season ended a sequence of ten when both teams had faced each other in league contests.

The Inaugural senior game against Caldy & Hoppers was a pre-season warm-up fixture  at Lightfoot Green prior to the 2004/5 season. Caldy had climbed the league ladder with a succession of promotions from the depths of South Lancashire and Cheshire 3, eventually gaining promotion to N2N as Champions of North 1 in 2007.

The first league meeting was at Paton Field back on the 6th of October 2007 when Hoppers turned round a narrow half time deficit to eventually run out winners by twenty points to sixteen. Since then just a couple of consecutive wins under Dave Baldwin’s leadership have given Hoppers the spoils at Paton Field from a total of eight further visits.

There have been twenty league meetings between the two clubs since Caldy’s  promotion in 2007. Our hosts currently hold the advantage so Hoppers will be looking to reduce the current seven wins to twelve defeat margin in games against Caldy. Back in 2016, the game in Cheshire was drawn thirteen all.

Team News

1. Noah MILLER

2. PJ MILLEA (C)

3. John BLANCHARD

4. Adam HOWARD

5. Luke PROCTER

6. Sam WALLBANK

7. Ryan CARLSON

8. Matt LAMPREY

9. Jake SQUIRRELL

10. Ben DORRINGTON

11. Jacob BROWNE

12. Nick GREGSON

13. Will DAVIDSON

14. Jordan DORRINGTON

15. Alex HURST

REPLACEMENTS: 16. C. TAYLOR, 17. D. MADDEN, 18. T. HARRISON, 19. T. SPENCE, 20. J. PRIOR

 

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