Bolton 25-26 Oldham

It was a beautiful dry day for rugby at the Avenue, the pitch had recently been spiked and looked in excellent condition despite recent weather conditions. Once again our thanks to Ian and his ground staff for the work they do each week.

From the kick off both teams showed their intent trying to play an open game and the first 20 minutes was relatively evenly matched with both sides creating opportunities.

Oldham opened the scoring on 12 minutes with a penalty opportunity handed to them through Bolton indiscipline, but this was soon cancelled out via the boot of Mike Mills with Mark Doherty starting on the bench. Oldham then added to their score through Bolton misfortune. A clearance kick from Mills down the middle of the field bounced awkwardly evading all the black and white shirts of Bolton and falling into the open arms of the Oldham full back who coasted in for an easy score under the sticks, converted to give the away team a 10-3 lead.

Mills was able to reduce the deficit before half time with two well struck penalties after some excellent poaching work by the back row of Ash Cooper, Ryan McClusky and Gaz Pritchard. Unfortunately for Bolton, injuries to McClusky and Pritchard meant they had played their last part in the game, meaning a eshuffle in the Bolton pack with Joe Smith moving on to the flank and prop Manny Tailor taking up the unfamiliar spot at 6.

The half time talk between the players and coaches appeared to galvanise Bolton who came out of the blocks in the early exchanges. Some excellent interplay between forwards and backs coupled with some direct running put the Oldham defensive line under pressure before Nick Duncan eventually crashed over for a converted try. Mills soon added another 3 points to his tally when Bolton pressure caused the visitors to concede a kickable opportunity.

Injury and indiscipline would once again play its part, with Lewis Lockett being replaced by Joe Speakman and veteran Gareth Evans taking 10 mins for not retreating at an Oldham tap penalty. Oldham made the man advantage count in the pack, putting the Bolton scrum under pressure and creating two try scoring opportunities which were taken. Conversions missed left it at 19-20.

In the fifty eighth minute Mills converted a penalty and Bolton took the lead 22-20 but almost straight away Oldham converted another penalty to take the lead 23 -22. In the seventy third minute Mills, again, converted a long penalty to snatch the lead again for Bolton (25 -23). Bolton had a good spell of retaining the ball in Oldham’s half after the restart but gave the ball away and Oldham broke away in to the Bolton half and then Bolton gave away another penalty near the end of the game which Oldham converted to win the match narrowly 26-25.

This is another game that Bolton know they should have won, one again it's back to the drawing board as they try to work out what is going wrong in a bid to right the wrongs ahead of a trip to Trafford MV on 10th December.