Chester were making their first appearance in the National Two North in over a year, after taking part in the West edition of the league last season.

Hoppers got off to a flyer when, just five minutes in, Holden scrambled over from the back of a maul.

10 minutes in and Chester were on the scoreboard, when they won a penalty and opted to go for points, with Morgan Bagshaw comfortably putting it away.

It wasn’t long till Hoppers responded, with debutant Greg Smith kicking three points of his own.

The rest of the half was one way traffic to the visiting side, however. Bagshaw added another three points from the tee before two Rhys Hamilton tries, both cutting right through the middle of the defence, saw their lead extend to 12 points.

It was nervy end to the half for Preston, with captain Scott Richardson being shown a yellow card, and another try being denied when held up over the line, to keep the gap to just 12.

Coming out into the second half, Hoppers looked like a side inspired, with Smith producing a brilliant kick from his own half which found touch just five metres out.

And they were clinical from the lineout, with the hooker Holden grabbing his second after peeling away and powering over.

Chester made a quick response to restore the 12 point lead when Joe Heaton found plenty of space out on the wing with the extra man on the pitch.

Preston started to gain the momentum, and keep hold of the ball for longer periods of time and received their dues when hattrick hero Holden dotted down from another maul.

And it wasn’t long after that, that the sides were level, when Owain Williams produced a fabulous diving finish into the corner.

With five minutes left, Chester put a lead of seven back on the board through Josh Woods.

Hoppers had the chance to level when makeshift hooker Cam Wilkinson scored the sides fifth try, but were cruelly denied the draw, when Smith, with the last kick of the game, saw the ball drift wide of the posts.

New Head Coach Dan Orwin was frustrated by the loss but impressed to see the sides resilience.
He said: “I said to the players, and if you look back over the game, we would have rolled over in that game last year.

“The mental fight, the mental resilience, the effort shown today was never in question.

“We just need to work on the game intelligence in key times, so we’re really happy we managed to get ourselves back in.

“Especially at half time, when we’re 12 points down, a player in the bin, everything seemed going against you, but we set the target of scoring first when coming back out and we managed to do it.

“I think on another day we would have won that game.”

Hoppers next match is a trip down to the Woodlands to take on rivals Fylde on Saturday 14th September.

Report by Tom Kelly, Photos courtesy of Mike Craig.