A RESURGENT Chester side travel to Otley this weekend for arguably one of their toughest fixtures of the season.

Saturday’s trip to Yorkshire presents the north west club with a chance to secure their first league win at Otley for SIX years.

Chester have not come out on top at the home of their upcoming opponents since securing a narrow 31-27 success back in November 2013.

Otley have managed to overcome Chester at their Cross Green home for each of the five seasons since then, while even stopping them from scoring in last year’s 6-0 victory.

But while Chester have had trouble with getting points on the board so far this season – with the fourth lowest points for total in the league – Jan Van Deventer says his side are confident going into the game after a run of three successive victories.

Speaking to the Standard, the Chester RUFC boss said: “We picked up another win (their third in a row) last weekend and that means the boys can go to Otley full of confidence.

“It’s tough winning away from home in this league, and we know Otley is a difficult place to go from our past experiences there.

“But we were able to get our first away win of the season recently against Luctonians, and now we’ve got that off our chests, we’ll try and get another important win away from home.

“We didn’t pick up any injuries against Hull (in their 14-5 victory) or in our reserves game, so I’ll have the same group of players to choose from for this one.

“We want to push ourselves up the table, but that’ll come with weekly good results as opposed to looking ahead. So, we’ll keep working hard to do just that.”

Following a run of three successive victories, against Loughborough Students, Luctonians and Hull, Chester are up to fifth in the English National League Two North table.

Another success this weekend against Otley could give the resurgent Hare Lane club a chance to continue climbing the standings with two of the teams above them going head to head against one another as second place Fylde welcome Stourbridge who are fourth.

Otley, meanwhile, head into the game against Chester after picking up their first victory of the season as they battled to beat Hinckley 17-14 away from home.

The result puts Chester’s bogey team up to thirteenth, with the side also drawing two and losing two in their opening five matches this season.

Other fixtures: Preston Grasshoppers v Huddersfield; Sedgley Park v Hinckley; Fylde v Stourbridge; Hull v Caldy; Luctonians v Loughborough Students; Scunthorpe v Tynedale; Wharfedale v Sheffield Tigers.