BOLTON CONTINUE TO ENJOY HOME COMFORTS

Aspatria's 'weak' jibe at Bolton combined to produce a gritty, winning performance from the Cherry and Whites, who extended their home winning streak to nearly a year.

Their Cumbrian counterparts began well and their physicality at the breakdown and in the loose dominated early proceedings. The home side found themselves pegged back and were forced into conceding a string of penalties for infringements at the breakdown. Fortunately the first kick at goal drifted wide and provided Bolton with some possession.

Bolton began to get into their stride and after strong carries from the ever impressive Matthew Parrish and Chris Mee, Bolton began to gain some territory and managed to get themselves ahead through the boot of Mark Doherty who continued his accuracy from the tee. Aspatria responded and further infringements from the Bolton forwards gave them a second opportunity to get on the board, which their kicker duly converted.

Despite being under the kosh during the opening exchanges, Bolton went into half time feeling as if they had got a foot hold in the match. This was even more impressive given that Second Row Tony McLaughlin had been sin binned after 24 mins for persistent infringements.

Half time Score 3-3

This optimism came to fruition when after 48 minutes, the always threatening Will Bate completed a tackle in midfield on the ten metre line, managing to smuggle the ball from his opponent before running unopposed under the posts to score the first try of the match. Doherty converted and Bolton had a seven point lead at 10-3.

Predictably, Aspatria rallied and used their strong running backs to good effect to get back into the match. It was from such a strong run that their hard running 12 managed to score a try, only minutes after Bolton had crossed the whitewash. The conversion was missed, but with less than thirty minutes left, there was only two points in the match at 10-8 to Bolton.

The final exchanges of the match were extremely tense, and this tension inevitably bubbled over leading to a fracas, the result of which was a red card for both teams, with McLaughlin seeing a second yellow for the hosts for his involvement.

It was clear that either a moment of individual brilliance or a mistake would turn the game and it was Aspatria who came up with the error in their 22, conceding a penalty for holding on in the ruck after some outstanding work by Nick Sandbrook just 5 minutes after he had come onto the field. Doherty coolly stepped up and slotted the crucial three points.

Aspatria once again came back hard at Bolton and even managed to spoil an attempted kick to touch to end the game and reclaim possession. They launched wave after wave of attack against the Bolton line and managed to get within 5 metres, however Bolton were up to the task and a turnover gave Bolton the chance to end the game with a kick off the field.

Bolton celebrated the win, but will need to be more clinical in attack and disciplined in defence if they are to compete with the top sides in the league on a regular basis. These lessons can be implemented next Saturday away against Workington.

Photo's from the game can be viewed here