Bolton Unlucky Away At Hutton

The visitors started in confident mood, putting the Preston based side on the back foot from the kick off, forcing Hutton to concede an early penalty. Chris Turner duly obliged and put Bolton into an early 3-0 lead.

Bolton’s early possession continued to pay dividends with Man of the Match Ash Cooper and Bobby Bolton both breaking through the Hutton defence. Hutton’s only answer was to concede another penalty, Turner converted to make it 6-0 to Bolton after only ten minutes.

Hutton predictably came storming back into the match and despite some courageous defence from Chris Mee and John Keech in particular, Hutton crossed over with their first meaningful attack of the match. Hutton’s fly-half converted the try to give the hosts a slender, if undeserved, 7-6 lead at half time.

The Cherry and Whites knew they had the beating of their high flying hosts, and their massive defensive effort was epitomized by Marcus O’Donaghue’s huge hit on Hutton’s full back. This tackle just before half time, set the tone for a breathless second period.

Bolton continued to dominate the set-piece, with their front row of Mee, Chris Cockton and Captain Sam Hilton, proving too powerful for Hutton’s front three.

However, Hutton proved why they are third in the league, with some resolute defence, until a kick through from Cockton unlocked their defence, leading to the hooker scoring a fantastic improvised try. Bolton now seemed on course for a hard-earned win, and were in the lead at 13-7.

The home side finally began to find some holes in Bolton’s defence and earned a kickable penalty for an infringement, which cut Bolton’s lead to 13-10. Hutton now began to sense they had a chance of snatching an unlikely win, but Bolton hit back with another penalty from Tuner, after good work from John Stryker at the base of the scrum.

The Avenue Street men were now 16-10 in the clear with ten minutes left. Bolton however shot themselves in the foot with a mistake at the ensuing kick off, leading to another Hutton score, giving the Preston men the lead for the first time on the match at 16-17.

Hutton stretched further clear with another penalty and an unconverted try with the last move of the match to deny Bolton a richly deserved losing Bonus point.

Despite the loss, Bolton take huge positives into Saturday’s massive derby at home against bitter rivals Bury.