YOUNGSTER Ash Cooper was Bolton’s hero as he scored the only try of the game to see off rivals Bury at Avenue Street.

Bolton started the game well and dominated the early play against a well-drilled Bury side, with the backs creating wide gaps for the hosts to exploit.

And Cooper took advantage of one of those to crash over the whitewash in the fixture’s decisive moment. Guy Lovgreen added the conversion.

Bury scored their only points from a well-struck penalty from Ian Webb which kept the visitors within site of Bolton.

But Bolton sealed the victory after the interval through two well-taken penalties from player-coach Lovegreen. Bolton entertain Tarleton on Saturday.

The second team edged out Eccles seconds in a thrilling 23-20 win. Bolton drew first blood when Alan Catterall crashed over the line but, when Tom Lee was sin-binned, Eccles took advantage of the extra man to lead 7-5.

Danny Barlow replied with a penalty before Stu Evans extended Bolton’s lead after superb work from Mike Singleton. Eccles hit back with an interception try, but Singleton then turned provider to offload for Lee to put Bolton 18-12 up.

A find move, started by man-of-the-match and involving Lee and Dave Ormes, saw captain Chris Turner go over in the corner to put daylight between the two teams. Eccles did grab a consolation try and conversion with two minutes left but Bolton held on to claim the points.

Bolton thirds went down 28-7 against Fylde fourths, prop Karl Vines grabbing their only try. The fourths lost 7-0 in a low-scoring contest against Colne and Nelson seconds.