Bolton Amazons u14s travelled to Eccles for the Northern girls network cup final day.
Bolton were up against a combined team made up of Eccles, Manchester and Burnley u14s in the plate final. Bolton were fortunate to take a 19 player squad to Gordon Street.

Bolton started strongly and pressure from the start saw them keep the opposition in their own half for the first 10 minutes of the game. Although the away team had its share of possession of the ball, strong defence from the Amazons kept any attack at bay.

Bolton were first to score when Jasmine Cox got the ball 10 metres out but was just tackled short of the line, however, Holly Turner was on hand to collect the ball and dive over the line.
Captain Iona Barnes stepped up and converted the try, Bolton had taken an early lead 7-0.

Bolton started to dominate the scrums. Not only winning their ball but on occasions winning opposition scrums as well. The front five of Charlotte Stone, Felicity Redford, Raid Hodgkinson-Bostock, Amber Pettitt and Millie-Jo Anderson drove the opposition off the ball.

Further pressure from the Bolton forwards saw Felicity Redford going over from close range with several Eccles players clinging on to her. Again Iona converted the try to make the score 14-0. Eccles were not to be outdone however and a lapse in concentration from the Amazons defence allowed Eccles back into the game. The try was unconverted bringing the score to 14-5 for the away team. Bolton stuck at with their back row of Sophie Rose, Holly Turner and Amelia Crook tackling everything that moved and turning possession over from the home team. This pressure paid off when Eilidh Burns playing at scrum half took the opportunity to go through a gap in the Eccles defence to score. The halftime score was 19-5 to Bolton.

Phillipa Irving and Bridget Stone replaced Amber and Millie-Jo in the second row. Eleanor Shawcross replaced Tope Oyeside after Tope had taken a knock.

In the second half Bolton continued to dominate the scrums. Powerful runs from Raid Hodgkinson-Bostock earned her the parents player of the match award.
Millie-Jo Anderson was on form playing her best game to date carrying the ball well into contact. Both Jasmine Cox and Iona Barnes had sniping runs. At one point Iona noticed that there were no opposition defenders covering the back and kicked the ball with Jasmine in hot pursuit but the bounce wasn’t favourable for Jasmine and she couldn’t gather it. A certain try went begging. The opposition never gave up and when they were awarded a penalty 5 metres out they popped it to one of their strong runners who smashed their way through a gap. The try was unconverted 19-10.

Amelia Crook scored 2 second half tries with Iona Barnes also getting a brace.
Iona was on form with the kicking tee and converted 5 out of the 7 tries to bring the final score to 45-19 after Eccles managed to pull a converted try back.

Bolton Amazons were worthy winners on their performance and made their parents very proud.
It was to be their last match as an u14s group as the team will split into u16’s and u14’s next September. It was a fantastic final performance to lift the trophy. Coach's player of the match award goes to the whole squad.