THE numbers were stacked up against Bolton Mets in their 38-16 defeat at home to Wigan Spring View, though they came out of the loss with great credit for their defensive efforts.

With only 12 players available the hosts were immediately up against it, but, after a bright start they took the lead.

Prop Rick Ackers burst through a tackle and sprinted 80 metres upfield to score the opening try, outpacing the opposition wingers to do so.

Having earned the kicking responsibility, Daryl Devlin slotted over the extra two points for a 6-0 lead.

Although a couple of tackles by Spring View seemed to be drifting above shoulder height, but with no penalties being awarded by the referee Andy Crompton complained too vigorously and picked up a yellow card and a 10-minute spell in the bin, meaning the Mets were down to 11 men.

After a couple of kicks failed to open up the Bolton side, Wigan used their extra men to spread the ball wide and score three tries in quick succession, two successful kicks putting them 16-6 ahead leading up to half time.

Though they had established a 10-point lead Mets had really made them work for it.

The attitude from the 12 players on the field in the second half could not be faulted, leaving the dozen, and their coach, Al Scarbrough to wonder what would have happened if they had had just a couple more bodies.

A tight period at the start of the second half meant no score for 15 minutes, but that run was broken when Spring View’s hooker, at acting half-back, dived over from close range.

A sin-binning for the Wigan side – also for back chat to the referee – equalled up the numbers for 10 minutes but Spring View were still able to cross the line for another try.

Despite this, Mets bounced back with a try at the other end, second-row forward Andrian Gribbin taking the ball to the line before passing for Joseph Burns to dive over in the corner.

From tight against the touchline the conversion from Devlin flew through the uprights.

With the momentum now with the Mets, they were soon in again as Burns doubled his tally down the left flank. A slick, flat pass from Devlin and a nice angled run by Burns caught the defence out to narrow the gap to just 10 points, the unsuccessful conversion making the score 26-16 to Spring View.

Heading into the final 10 minutes there had been several penalties for both teams for high shots, but it was a high swinging arm, that went unpunished, that saw winger Adam Woods leave the field with a suspected broken cheekbone.

Facing 11 players for the remainder of the game, Wigan touched down twice more to make the final score 38-16.

The opposition coaches picked out Rick Ackers for his second man-of-the-match award in two weeks, just ahead of stand-in captain Devlin and two-try scorer Burns. Top tackler was 54-year-old Gribbin after a barnstorming game.