BOLTON RUFC completed their season with a little bit of history, winning at Hawcoat Park for the first time in the club’s history.

The Cherry and Whites trailed with time running out but two tries in the last four minutes, through Mark Aspinall and Jack Robinson, gave them the spoils in a 33-29 win.

The victory, Bolton’s third in a row, means Dave Crouch’s men finish sixth in the North Lancs/Cumbria League.

“We were a try down within five minutes,” he said. “And I thought ‘Oh, here we go, we’re in for a long afternoon’ but Jack Robinson went over twice after good breaks and with Mike Mills making the kicks we were 14-5 up at the break.

“We scored again just after half-time, another well-worked try with Will Bate and Chris Cockton involved, but Manny Tailor must have gone 25 metres with the ball, which isn’t bad at all for a prop.”

However, similar to their season – which tailed off with one win in February and a winless March – Bolton let a good position slip away and 24 unanswered points for the hosts put them in the box seat. But with Aspinall charging over the line between the posts and Robinson completing his hat-trick as the clock ran out, Bolton were, for the first time, victorious at Hawcoat

And Crouch, after his first season as head coach, looks back with a touch of disappointment he has not always had all of his troops to call upon.

“We finished the season off really nicely, against Hawcoat who are not a bad side at all,” he said. “It was a good performance against a strong side and shows what the team is capable of.

“We have had a few problems along the way, particularly with not having the same personnel each week, but peoples’ attitude is good, in the sense that they know they need to commit to training and Saturdays next year.

“Continuity is a big thing over a season and if we can get that we could be in for a very successful season next time.”