The Mets put out a strong squad and soon had decent field position before Captain Mark Dorning, playing in the Centres, put Winger Matt Gladwin over in the corner. Unfortunately, the referee ruled the pass had gone forward and the try was denied.

Ashton Bears continually coughed up possession, allowing Bolton to continue their impressive attacking play. Stand Off Ste Hickey produced a delicate pass to put Mark Dorning through a gap but again the pass was pulled up as forward. This was quickly followed by Ste Dorning supplying younger brother Mark Dorning with a short pass only for the referee to rule a third forward pass and deny Bolton the points they rightly deserved.

With the score still deadlocked and pointless, Bolton set up camp on their opponent’s line but just couldn’t break through the defence. Debutant Mark Aspinall, playing at Fullback, linked into the back line well but the Bears managed to hold firm no matter what the Mets through at them.

As half time approached, Ashton had a rare foray into the Mets half but managed to cross the try line and open the scoring to punish Bolton for not taking advantage of all their possession and field position. The kick was converted and the away team went into the break 6-0 to the good.

As has been a regular occurrence of late, Bolton started to suffer with injuries and had to make several changes that disrupted the line up enough to gift Ashton an early try.

Another Mets debutant, Josh Jones, was making good head way down field with help from hard running forwards Ryan Terry, Ian Grounds and Ken Sackfield before a pass to Winger Aaron Bibby looked to have opened the Bears defence but the chance went begging.

With the Mets pointless and time running out, they had to force passes and take chances that unfortunately didn’t come off for them and this allowed Ashton the chance to capitalise and score a further two tries to bring the score line to 22-0. This was how the game was to finish but didn’t reflect the performance put in by the 17 Mets players.

Due to his hard running and slick handling, Ste Hickey was pronounced Man of the Match, with Ryan Terry and Ian Grounds runners up. After putting in several big hits throughout the game, Ryan Terry was rightfully chosen as the Best Defender for the Mets.

Bolton Mets are at Home again next week to Wigan Bulldogs with a 2.30pm KO. Please come down and show us your support. The club is still looking for Coaches, a first aider/physio, match day volunteers and committee members. If you’re interested, please contact Glenn Jones 07795 007116

If you fancy giving Rugby League a TRY, why not call down to a training session on Thursday evenings from 6.30pm at our New House Farm pitch and introduce yourself. You can also get in touch with us through Twitter, Facebook or our website, www/pitcher.com/clubs/boltonmets/