Hoppers unbeaten start to the season came to an end last weekend when they were defeated 45-35 in North Yorkshire at the hands of Wharfedale. Both sides head into the fifth round with three wins from their opening four league matches, making this an intriguing meeting between two teams currently sitting on 15 points. Chester occupy fourth place on points difference, with Preston fifth.

Before that defeat, Preston had put together three impressive victories: 31-12 against Fylde, 52-33 against Harrogate and a dramatic opening-day win over Heath.

Chester, meanwhile, arrive in Lancashire in a confident mood having settled back into National League 2 North after a spectacular 66-26 victory over Billingham last Saturday which followed a 50-28 win at Otley.

Hoppers Head Coach Dan Orwin is looking forward to the challenge Chester bring.

He said: "After a solid start, winning our first three matches, we fell to defeat at Wharfedale last Saturday. Despite scoring five tries and racking up 35 points, our defence and 2nd half discipline were well below what we expect as a group."

Orwin continued: "Credit to Wharfedale, they were typically physical and made it hard for us times. They are always a tough team to beat at home but we got parts of out defensive organisation wrong, which put us under pressure and led to individual errors and discipline errors."

Orwin will look back on last week as a game that Hoppers could've won.

He added: "We had enough chances to win the game and put ourselves on the driving seat, taking the lead but instead of managing the last 20, we made costly errors."

The players effort never faulted and Dan was complimentary of that.

"We never gave up the fight though, and kept pushing hard for the points we needed, in the final 10 minutes we were camped in their 22."

"Saturday's game is a new week and a new challenge against Chester who, like us, have won three games and lost one."