Finsbury Park coach Gareth Chapman is expecting an exciting start to life in Herts/Middlesex Division One when they face a familiar face in Thamesians.

Chapman and his side make the trip to The Pavilion, in Twickenham for the first match of the season on Saturday, as they look to get off to a strong start in their new league.

Both sides were promoted into the division from the Herts/Middlesex Division Two last season after finishing first and second.

They will now meet once again and renew their rivalry as they will both be keen to make their mark in the league.

“In a way it’s exciting start to the season for both teams as it’s almost a chance for one of us to get off to a really good start before taking on let’s say taking on the teams that have been there, seen it and done it in that league before.”

The side have had mixed fortunes during pre-season as they beat Chesham comfortably by a score of 45-7 before then suffering a 52-21 defeat to Hammersmith and Fulham.

Despite the defeat the club’s first-team still remain undefeated in competitive fixtures in 2018 and Chapman is hoping the confidence from last season’s title-winning season will continue this campaign.

“In any walk of life guys, girls, everyone loves winning and last year we just got on a roll and kept going,” he said.

“The first team hasn’t lost in 2018 and you can see in pre-season the confidence is there and we want to keep that going as long as we can.”

Chapman insists his side will take this season game by game but he sees no reason why they can’t be challenging for honours after playing in the same league himself before being forced to retire due to an injury meaning his hand needed to be restructured.

“We always take it game by game, but I have the target that we want to be aiming for promotion again,” he added.

“I’ve actually played in the league that we’ve gone into in the past and I feel we are strong enough as a club that we should be challenging to hopefully win the league again.”