Bolton Succumb To Aspatria’s Spirit

...but some of the frailties in that opening win were exposed by a physical and motivated Aspatria side who ran in three tries in their 24-8 win.

The game began at breakneck speed, with Bolton struggling to cope with Aspatria’s aggression at the breakdown, consequently Bolton found themselves on the back foot and began to fall off tackles. So it wasn’t long until the home side opening the scoring which was converted.

Following the opening score, Bolton began to get a foothold in the game and dominated at scrum time, whilst also gaining some territory, with Louis Critchlow and Ash Cooper carrying well. The pressure told on Spats who had two players sin-binned. Despite their numerical advantage, Bolton couldn’t find the cutting edge in the opponents half and continually put themselves under pressure, as Aspatria scored again after a well worked line out move left one of their big ball carriers a relatively unopposed romp under the stick.

At 14-0, Bolton were up against it. A penalty from debutant Sam Fogg and some penetrative runs from skipper Rhys Pritchard and full-back Jonny Stansfield gave Bolton some hope going into the second stanza.

This hope seemed well placed as the Cherry and Whites enjoyed prolonged periods of possession inside Aspatria’s 22, but a consistently malfunctioning lineout, coupled with poor skills in contact, allowed Aspatria to gain field position and they were much more clinical in their finishing as they scored two further tries. Bolton scored a consolation with five minutes left as a well-timed pass from young fly half Joe Speakman allowed Danny Joseph the opportunity to attack a gap in the Aspatria midfield and Jack Robinson was on hand to finish well, for his fourth try in two matches.

Despite the disappointment of the result, Bolton know they have much more to give and relish the opportunity to makes amends in a few weeks when the two sides meet again in a cup fixture in October.