BOLTON Mets went down 42-16 to Wigan Spring View A in their penultimate game of the North West Men's League Division Five campaign.

In a fixture reversed to Avenue Street, the away side took an early lead with a converted try close to the uprights.

A second try followed around the 15-minute mark when a missed tackle deep in the opposition half allowed the loose forward time to sprint away and score.

In between the two Wigan tries there was some good play by Bolton – an interception from centre Ben Latham saw him advance 50 yards before being brought down by the visitors' full-back.

From the next play captain Rick Ackers made more inroads before offloading to the supporting Ste Hickey, and just as it looked like he was about to dive over and score in the corner the covering defender did just enough to push him into touch.

Finding themselves 12-0 down, Mets had to push on and force a couple of repeat sets.

Attacking the Spring View line, Hickey threw a cut-out pass to find Latham hugging the touchline who was then able to reap the rewards and touch down.

Mets continued to improve and it was break down the left saw centre Patrick O’Brien release Hickey only for the referee to rule it a forward pass.

Then Hickey suffered a cut below the eye due to a clash of heads with a Spring View player, but fortunately he was able to continue.

With time running out in the first half, a drive from Jason Nuttall was stopped just short of the line before quick-thinking hooker Tom Cain dived over from the resulting play.

Having made his first appearance for the Mets in the recent Nines Tournament, Cain was making his official debut and causing all sorts of problems for the opposition.

Daryl Devlin slotted over the conversion but having missed the first, Mets went into the break 12-10 behind.

O’Brien was replaced at half time due to a slight twinge in the knee, meaning a switch to centre for Rob Tuppen and a place in the second row for Will Brown.

The second half began in similar fashion to the first with two quick tries for the View to increase the score to 20-10.

But Mets responded when loose forward Ackers crashed through a tackle and, after shirking off a last-ditch ankle tap, sprinted away to score. Devlin was again successful with the conversion and reduced the gap down to four points.

Despite getting back to within striking distance, things started to go downhill rapidly for the Mets as missed tackles and poor defensive structure gifted Wigan three quickfire tries to take the game out of reach, a final try cementing victory for the visitors.

Hickey was picked out as opposition’s man of the match ahead of Ackers and Tuppen, while the Top Tackler award went to 17-year-old Cain.

Mets host champions Thatto Heath B tomorrow at Greenhalgh’s Pavilion in their final match of the league season.

Then they end the campaign with a tour game against North Brussels Gorillas in the Belgian capital on Saturday week.