BOLTON Mets remain rock bottom of North West Men's League Division Five but put in a spirited display in a 38-6 defeat against leaders Wigan Spring View.

Hosting a midweek fixture for the first time in more than a decade, Mets were looking to improve on a 100-6 reverse against the same opposition just 18 days earlier.

They started well enough with the opening 15 minutes scoreless, mainly due to some physical Mets defence led by forwards Tom Crook and Andy Platt.

The Wigan side felt aggrieved to be on the wrong end of several penalty calls but Mets were more than happy to have the ball in their possession.

Some strong carries by Ken Sackfield and Ryan Terry shook up the visitors and the half-back pairing of Ste Hickey and Sam Abbott organised players well to create several close chances.

The referee was firm and two Spring View players were sin-binned within five minutes of each other.

But once the visitors were back to their full complement they managed to break the deadlock as the quick-thinking Hooker dived over from close range.

They were in again moments later, a break down the left touchline saw the centre tackled inches from the line before the winger jumped out from dummy-half to squeeze in at the corner.

Another try right before half time extended the lead to 14-0, however, Mets dug deep and did well to keep the league leaders to just three tries.

Several changes at half time saw Rob Tuppen, Harry Dawber and Matt Rigby introduced the latter travelling from Rochdale to make his Mets debut.

And Mets were soon on the board when a charging run by Sackfield scattered a couple of defenders before he attempted to take on the full-back.

The support from captain Hickey meant a draw and pass on the full-back released him to sprint to the line and score and the try was neatly converted by Sackfield to narrow the gap to just eight points.

Mets then saw a yellow card of their own when Joseph Burns was handed 10 minutes in the sin bin for back chat.

With the extra man, Wigan regained control and scored back-to-back tries to make it 26-6.

Tuppen was putting himself about, taking the ball to the line strongly and making those extra yards after contact, while full-back Joe Harte also caused the opposition problems with his angled running and hand-offs.

There were two further tries for Spring View in the last 10 minutes which took the shine of what had been an encouraging performance from Mets.

Sackfield was named man-of-the-match for the second successive game, while the runners-up were Terry and Abbott.

Having led the line in defence for most of the game, Tom Crook was awarded top tackler.

Mets are on home soil again on Saturday when Blackbrook A are the visitors.