With their own pitch frozen Hoppers kindly switched the game to Tyldesley’s ground to avoid a fixture pile up and, whilst it is to their credit that they were willing to travel for the sake of fulfilling the fixture, they must have wished they had stayed at home!

Tyldesley chalked up their third straight victory, scoring eleven tries in the process and taking their points total in those three games past 170.

Preston came with a big pack and a desire to play rugby which made for a fluent game despite the sticky playing surface but once the home forwards had established superiority the tries started to flow.

Their first came after miss passes from Aldred and Jones created space for winger Vardon who literally ran over the defensive cover to score in the corner.

Full Back and skipper Martin linked up well and showed good strength in the tackle to grab his first of the day and extend Tyldesleys’s lead on twenty minutes.

Further first half tries followed from Edge and Gaffey (his fourth in three games) and Hayes went under the posts just before the break. Aldred converted three of these to leave Tyldesley 31-0 ahead as the teams took their oranges.

Having gone into the game with a full compliment of reserves on the bench and, with the game as good as won, several changes were made at half time.

Things therefore took a little time to get going again after the restart but when Martin grabbed his second the Preston floodgates were well and truly open.

As in several recent games, once having achieved dominance, the Tyldesley pack, as well as providing great ball for their half backs, were able themselves to enjoy some of the fruits of their hard work and there can be few finer sights for the Tyldesley faithful than clever footballers such as Darren Edge, Lee Davies and Craig Pulman in space and with the ball in their hands.

Rampaging forward runs from deep set up further tries for Corbett, Martin and a second for Vardon.

Having completed his hat-trick Paul Martin, who was outstanding all afternoon, then grabbed a fourth and the final score went to Matt Soulsby making his first appearance after a career threatening back injury.

Aldred had a good afternoon with the boot converting seven of the tries.

This was Tyldesley’s best performance since Christmas against a side much stronger than recent opposition and, if they can continue in this vein, they could well push for a top four spot, much more than they would have hoped for at the beginning of the season.

On Saturday they travel to Shropshire to face Whitchurch in a Raging Bull Trophy tie.