Bolton u13 35 v Littleboro' u13 25

By graham good

Despite missing players others stepped in to give Bolton a hard fought win

Bolton were missing a number of regular starters for this game and had to give a number of the squad more match time than usual. Obviously this has the knock on effect that many of the established pairings were missing and new combinations were the order of the day.
Littleboro' are always tough opponents, we drew with them at the Festival in May so we knew what to expect but so did they.
Played as 3 periods of 20 mins, Bolton surged into a lead in the 1st minute when Daniel McGuiness drove over from short range. The visitors replied in the 5th & 7th minute via their pacy back line. Evan Dare drew Bolton level with a blistering defence scattering run in the 11th min and Daniel repeated his earlier drive to make it 15-10 at the end of the 1st period.
The regular half back pairing, Henry Ainscough and Jack Good survived the changes and started to take control of the game. Fafa scored in the 1st minute - a 70 yard interception and again in the 5th following a well won scrum and quick ball from Jack & Henry. The game was then very even for the next 8 minutes until the visitors back line eventually found a way through only for Louie Ramm to score in the final minute of the period, 30-15.
By the 3rd period, both teams were struggling to maintain the pace but Littleboro scored 2 breakaway tries bringing them to 1 score behind. With Jack & Henry restored for the final 10 minutes Bolton tried to keep the ball in the opposition half, when imaginative (or desperate) play from Jack, Finlay Morgan, Luke Parry and Ben Hammond led to Louie adding a second in the right corner to make the final score 35-25.