Bolton 4th team overcome Player Shortages, Front row crisis and Fleetwood

... by 2pm on Saturday, Bolton had recruited every available junior coach, brought players out of retirement, recalled students from far flung universities (well UCLAN) and pulled people off the street (and their mates) to start the game with a full complement of 15 and 5 replacements. With this being the last game before our own caretaker manager Mark 'Rafa' Higginson would hand back the reigns to executive director of 4th team Rugby Les Towler, the boys were keen to deliver Mark a big performance......

..... and what a performance they did deliver. Right from the first kick off Bolton took the attack to Fleetwood, strong direct running, opened up a gap and with less than a minute on the clock Bolton had their first try with Gaz Flounders scoring in the corner - conversion missed. This effectively set the tone for the whole match, the Bolton forwards dominating the breakdown, a pack in total control at scrum time and the backs were slicing through the Fleetwood defence with some great angles and fantastic support play. Fleetwood were living off scraps with any attacks quickly dealt with. Further tries followed from Spencer, Howie, Hill, and second from Flounders and Craigan with three converted (in fairness most were scored out wide)

HT Bolton 36 Fleetwood 0

Key for Bolton was to start the second half strongly, get a few more tries and kill the game off, however the half time oranges clearly revived the Fleetwood team. From the kick off Fleetwood were a completely different team and took the battle to Bolton - driving deep into the Bolton 22. Strong defence kept them out as they went through the phases and only a good tackle by newcomer and under 8 (coach) Chris Murray forced a knock on. From the scrum, Howie made a break down the blind, however the old legs could only take him to the Fleetwood 10 metre line where he fed Spencer who in turn found Jamie cairns who finished off under the posts, try converted. Once again Fleetwood took the initiative from the kick off and took the play to the Bolton 22 - reminiscent of the previous week, Bolton were now missing one on one tackles, quick ball from the Fleetwood forwards and the stand-off picked out the centre who cut straight through the Bolton defence to score under the posts - converted. This was enough to jolt the Bolton players back into reality and the rest of the half, Bolton re-asserted their authority, scoring a further 5 tries (Flounders completing his hat-trick) to finish convincing winners

FT Bolton 70 Fleetwood 7

A great performance which will give the 4th team great confidence as they go back into cup action next week, at Avenue Street against ........ Fleetwood

Tries
Flounders 3
Cairns 2
Hill 2
Spencer 2
Howie
Craigan
Wilde (I think)
Cons
Howie 4
Spencer 1