Bolton Mets 10-26 Bury Broncos

Pleased with another win against local rivals though we made hard work of it again. Bolton are a forwards-dominated team with a big pack and we got sucked into a forwards battle for too long. Their hooker was a great runner and couple of strong forwards troubled us, but for the most I felt we took everything they could throw and handled it fairly well.

Bolton scored first, we went ahead 10-4 before sloppy defence allowed them to draw level just after half time. Once we finally started to move the ball wide we began to dominate and following a nice chip & gather to take us ahead, some great work from our forwards put me away out wide to snatch another try (top try scorer at the moment somehow!), and the win was sealed on 80 with a devastating run out wide by a debutant winger.

4 more lads on debut today, the squad is shaping up well. Bolton are always a tough team and today was no exception, enjoyed the game and chuffed to be 2nd in the table even though there's a long, long way to go in the season.

Didn't attend Crosfields match as was back at the club entertaining Warrington Wizards 'A' 's first outing

Defences on top I see at 50-42. Coaches please with the win, unbeaten so far and looking forward to going to Chester next week.. bit of an unknown quantity for us

Might as well start it off enjoy the games this weekend

Ashton Bears A vs Portico Vine
Bury Broncos vs Culcheth Eagles
Chester Gladiators vs Crosfields
Fitton Hill Bulldogs vs Bolton Mets
Little Hulton Reds vs Wigan Bulldogs
Woolston Rovers A vs Hindley A

Ashton Bears A vs Portico Vine - not played either
Bury Broncos vs Culcheth Eagles - Broncos for the win!
Chester Gladiators vs Crosfields - Crosfields tough to beat
Fitton Hill Bulldogs vs Bolton Mets - Bolton were a big set, but I thought Fitton were bigger!
Little Hulton Reds vs Wigan Bulldogs - not played either yet, I'll go with LHR
Woolston Rovers A vs Hindley A - hard to say but Hindley have started better

We've got a massive 20 lads missing this weekend, including 10 First-Teamers, but still trying to field 2 teams! Injury/work crisis!

I don't think you are the only ones to struggle with numbers...and it's early days yet. Think it's going to be a long hard season for some clubs.

Well we fielded 2 sides but both lost...had a few let us down for the Seconds, think they lost about 36-14, and then the Firsts took the field...

Bury 6-14 Culcheth

Completely refereed out of this game. Culcheth came to play hard and dirty - fair enough, some teams do that - but the ref turned up with a proper grudge after getting some grief last year. Took no end of high shots, elbows & knees and were offered no protection at all, yet the slightest infringement by us was a penalty. We ended up having 2 sin-binned and 3 sent off. First was a stupid brain-fart as a one lad tripped someone, the others were following a dirty late elbow which caused a couple of normally very controlled players to explode - frankly they'd had enough. Not happy with discipline but if the ref won't protect players you can't really blame them for eventually losing it.

Culcheth squeezed in a couple of tries while we were down on numbers and it was hard to get back into it from then, but we got a late try. On a level playing field I'm confident we would have won, we made better yards and our defence was on top but some poor decisions and that absolute muppet with the whistle killed the game. Oh, and we had 3 legitimate tries chalked off - 2 of them clearly grounded. Fuming.

The game was also held up for 30 minutes with a neck/spinal injury that required 2 ambulances (the first didn't have a spinal board!) - hope the lad's ok.

We went down 30-24 at home to Crosfields. Pretty even game and think we should have held on. We were 20-16 up before Crosfields levelled and then they scored twice in the last seven minutes before we got a consolation at the death.

They are a big and physical outfit but a good set of lads and it was a decent game. Crosfields had a lad sinbinned for a professional foul and we didn't take advantage - think that was crucial point in the game.

Scoring points isn't a problem for us but we need to tighten up defensively and get a bit smarter. Confident the wins will come if we can do that.

Anyone know the Hindley A vs Portico Vine result from yesterday? Not on the NWML webesite.

Its been very quiet on here for the last few weeks.
How do ppl think the league is turning out.
Any shocks at what teams are doing well or not so well.
Another hard set of games this weekens hopefully no more 24-0

Enjoying it so far, good to see the overwhelmingly majority of games have been played and, as you say, hopefully last week's 24-0 results won't become too common.

Culcheth obviously look the team to beat - not see Little Hulton yet and Woolston were a good young side.

Most games have been competitive and its shaping up well.