BOLTON enjoyed a long-awaited 47-9 win at Heaton Moor, and in doing so reached the Lancashire Plate Cup final for the first time in three years.

Having lost their last four games in the North Lancs/Cumbria division, it was the quality of the finishing and the tenacity of the forwards that saw Dave Crouch’s side win the semi-final convincingly.

The Cherry and Whites scored eight tries, with head coach Crouch delighted their losing streak had been broken.

“I’m very pleased with getting through to the final,” he said.

“We were really clinical for once, being 29-0 up at half-time. There were some really good tries being scored and we retained the ball so much better.”

The game started with both sides battling for position and little to separate them.

Bolton were awarded a penalty after 15 minutes, and Joe Speakman converted it for a three-point lead.

Seven minutes later, Will Bate broke free to score a try, fly-half Speakman converted to put the visitors 10 points ahead.

Jack Robinson was in fine form just before half-time and touched down twice, either side of Niall Murphy’s try, with two successful conversions putting Bolton 29-0 up at the break.

Heaton Moor got an easy start to the second half with a converted try after sloppy play from the Cherry and Whites.

Moments later, though, Louis Critchlow and Speakman produced some good play to put Ryan McClusky over to score.

Robinson got his third try of the afternoon just three minutes later, before Critchlow and captain Rhys Pritchard both got their tries at the close.

Now Crouch hopes his side can use the cup final ticket as a springboard to get back on track in the league.

“Hopefully we can get back to winning ways, even though we’ve got quite a few absentees,” he said. “Obviously, we can’t make excuses for the injured players, so we have to go out there and do the dirty work.”

Facing league leaders Keswick in the next game, the head coach acknowledges it’s going to be more difficult than the Heaton Moor tie.

“We’ll try to push and get forward, they’re a good side but we’ll give it our utmost.”