Wigton blown away by high flying Bolton

Wigton travelled to Bolton looking to build on two excellent away victories at Fleetwood and Tarleton. However, the home side and form team in the league having won their previous 12 matches,their last defeat coming at Lowmoor Road in December, were in no mood to surrender that record and their first half display was the best performance against Wigton this season.

They totally controlled the first 40 minutes with Wigton unable to get a grip on the fast running backs as Bolton built up a handsome lead of 26 points without reply. The first try came after only 8 minutes with the strong running Bate at inside centre powering through a couple of tackles before offloading to a teammate who was able to drive over the line for a converted try. Wigton tried to get a foothold in the game but just when things were looking promising, an interception on the half way line allowed Cockton the Bolton hooker to make a strong run towards the Wigton line, despite a couple of good tackles Bolton had men spare and crossed in the corner to lead 14-0.

Bolton continued to attack with the backs running riot to score in the corner and extend their lead to 19-0. Wigton were now getting a lot more possession, however right on the stroke of half time, the ball was lost on the Bolton 22m line and it was hacked all the way up the pitch for Bolton to score a 4th try under the posts to give them a 26-0 advantage at half time.

Things got worse at the start of the second half with Bolton scoring in the corner again quickly followed by a 6th try under the posts to increase their lead to 38-0. With 30 minutes still to play Wigton were heading for a very heavy defeat, however the players rolled up their sleeves and took the game to Bolton whose forwards were visibly tiring. A 5m scrum allowed David Hanabury to dive over for Wigtons first try, his conversion hit the upright but points were on the board. 4 minutes later a great passage of play saw Jamie Warwick diving over to reduce the lead to 38-10.

Wigton were now playing at a much quicker pace and with Bolton tiring Dave Hanabury glided through the centre to touchdown under the posts. The conversion was straight forward and the score was a more respectable 38-17 but the clock was against a shock comeback and the final whistle was blown soon afterwards.

Bolton were superb in the first half and deserved winners but the Wigton players showed great courage and commitment to dominate the last 30 minutes but the damage had already been done.

A massive thank you to Bolton for their first class hospitality pre and post match.