Bolton’s title bid is stalled by Boro

5:09pm Tuesday 18th December 2007

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Bolton 0 Littleborough 20

BOLTON'S title challenge took a huge blow at home against Littleborough.

Bolton were under the cosh early on, with only last ditch tackles from Mike Singleton and Danny Joseph preventing the away team converting their early pressure into points.

The pressure proved too much, however, and Littleborough eventually crossed the line under the posts, the conversion was missed, but the away side added a penalty later in the half and Bolton were 8-0 behind.

The score did seem to spark Bolton into life, and they had the majority of the next 20 minutes in the Littleborough half, but lacked the penetration and ball retention to break the opposition's defence.

Centre Joe Baker did manage to make some inroads into Littleborough territory, but lacked the support to make the break count.

After the interval, Bolton attempted to gain territory, with fly-half Rob Weatherhead looking to kick his side into scoring positions.

Unfortunately, Bolton's faltering lineout was unable to challenge the Littleborough throw.

It was a matter of time before Bolton conceded another score, and Littleborough ran in three second-half tries to put a gloss on the scoreline.

Bolton's second team were beaten 29-17 by Preston Grasshoppers fifth team.

In an end-to-end match, neither team really had any advantage as good defence from both teams kept the first-half score down to 8-7.

The second-half started brightly for Bolton, and a quick score gave them a 12-8 lead. Both teams then traded tries, Bolton's coming courtesy of Andy Leigh.

In the last 10 minutes Preston drove over from close range to snatch the lead back and, as Bolton pushed forward, a breakaway try gave the final score a better look for the home side than they deserved.

The thirds were beaten 13-6 by Upper Eden, while the u-16s were also defeated - 31-7 against Liverpool Collegiate. It was a similar tale for the u-13s, who were beaten 20-7 by Ormskirk.

The under-15s went to the top of the Junior Rugby challenge League after an impressive 26-21 win over Sedgley Park.

The youngsters, who have lost just once in the league this season, scored tries from Conor McGrath (2), Callum Smyth and Ali Alhakeer, with three conversions by Matt Veal.

More good news came from the u-12s, who won 42-7 against Broughton Park.

All teams held a minutes silence before their games in memory of Daniel Harrison, who died in a car accident last week.