Little Hulton Reds travelled to Bolton Mets with both sides needing points after shaky starts to the season.
The game started well for Little Hulton, with Wes Winder finding touch to give his side an attacking scrum, and from here moving the ball wide right to powerful winger Lee Parson, who forced his way over the line in the corner.
This fired up a spirited Bolton side who came in waves at Little Hulton, who were having a devil of a job to keep the Mets at bay.
After 20 minutes of pressure Bolton finally got on the scoreboard when the Reds defence was unable to gather a high ball and the Mets winger ran the ball in under the post.
An added conversion took the score to 6-4, but it would be the only time the home side were ahead for the rest of the match.
Little Hulton countered, upping their game through forwards Danny Jones and Mike Bolton, who started to make ground, and it came as no surprise when the Reds scrum half danced through the Bolton defence to score, leaving Winder an easy kick from under the sticks.
As half time approached big Danny Jones broke the home side’s defence to score again, Winder adding the extras to give Little Hulton a 6-16 lead.
The second half saw more power and pace from the Little Hulton side: early on after a Bolton scrum, flier Davy Jones collected a superb offload to race 50 metres to add more points to the Reds’ account, essentially ending Bolton’s challenge.
This was breathing space the Reds needed to open up their game, with the pack winning ground and able to give their speedy backs time and room. Mike Bolton was chief tormentor again committing the Bolton fullback and offloading the ball to the supporting Ross Cahill who duly scored by the posts.
Little Hulton were now in full flow with Gaz Hessian and Foster calling the shots.
A long ball to the right sent Alan ‘Woody’ Hargreaves running free, duly passing out to winger Lee Parson who smashed his way over the Bolton fullback to finish off his brace.
Bolton picked up a consolation score in the dying moments, but Little Hulton deserved the 10-34 win for their speed in the backs and their crunching goal-line defence.
