Qualified success is target for Rovers boss

His squad, who reached the Challenge Cup final but finished 10th in Super League this season, have won all their games in the Middle Eights ahead of tomorrow’s visit from Salford Red Devils, their last game of an, at times, frustrating season.

Chester admitted: “So far, we’ve picked up six wins from six in the Super 8s and we’re not far off our goal of winning seven from seven and finishing top of this mini-table.

“That would be a good achievement. We have the opportunity to achieve that on Sunday and want to end the campaign on a positive note by beating Salford.

“We’ve shown this season that we have the ability to beat the best teams in the competition and we’ve been pretty good in the one-off games, but we want to be more consistent next year.

“Winning all seven matches in the Super 8s would be a good start. We’ve got next year in mind and we want to see some good performances on Sunday to give us some momentum going into pre-season.”

Chester makes four changes to his squad with Australian stand-off Dane Chisholm, second-row Graeme Horne, Tyrone McCarthy – in the acting captain’s last game for Rovers – and Shaun Lunt, all returning to the fold.

Aaron Ollett and Liam Salter are out injured, Tony Puletua is ineligible due to the terms of his loan from Salford and young half-back Matty Marsh is rested.

Rovers could easily have folded after their embarrassing 50-0 Challenge Cup final defeat against Leeds but have won all three league games since.

“We’ve done pretty well since Wembley and I’m really proud of how the boys have responded to that,” said Chester.