No points were put on the board for over twenty minutes, with both sides having spells on the ball. Billingham were pushing on the line in the opening ten minutes, before Hoppers’ handling mistakes meant they couldn’t quite get over the line for a try.

After nearly half an hour, the first points were scored when Billingham got their first try. Hoppers allowed them several advantages and free ball, and eventually the ball travelled out wide into Adam Brown’s hands, who sprinted over on the wing.

Hoppers did have chances again, but they kept knocking the ball on and key moments, including over the line.

And on the stroke of half time, the hosts had a penalty from under the posts to give the side a 10-0 lead going into the second half.

Preston responded well when they came back out, grabbing a try five minutes in. They threw in from the lineout and created the maul. It took a while for it to get moving, but once it did, there was nothing the opposition could do to stop it, with Ally Murray eventually scoring.

Hoppers continued to put the pressure on, spending more time in the 22, but weren’t being clinical enough. And they were made to pay for it,

Billingham produced a cross-field kick from their own 22, that landed in Joseph Scarborough’s hands. He then produced a blitzing run down the touchline, before offloading to Jamie Lane, who shimmied his way over.

The visitors did respond immediately, Tyler Spence producing an incredible run, slipping through several defenders, before offloading to Murray, who played in Jacob Browne with plenty of space to score.

Still giving away penalties though, Hoppers allowed the opposition to work their way up the pitch. Peter Evans then dummied his way through the middle, to score their third.

With 10 minutes from time, Preston got back within five points, when Sammy Russell crashed his way over.

But five minutes time, any chance of a comeback was washed away, when a cross-field kick landed in the try zone, which Scarborough dived on to score to round the game out.

Hoppers will be hoping to brush off a frustrating weekend in the North East, when they host Wharfdale at Lightfoot Green next week.

Match report by Tom Kelly