BOLTON will be sick of the sight of Hutton after suffering their third defeat against the Preston side this season.
The Avenue Street men were unlucky to finish with nothing and the defeat leaves them eighth in the North Lancashire Division One with Hutton three places and three points above them.
Bolton lost the reverse fixture 19-0 in October in another game they felt they could have won, and they also went down to a narrow cup defeat earlier in the season.
They began Saturday’s game well with the pack running into the stout Hutton defence with energy, working their way up the pitch to areas where the backs had room to run several impressive, if fruitless moves.
After the visitors’ initial surge, Hutton came into the game and took the lead with an unconverted try midway through the first half.
Bolton replied with a penalty calmly slotted between the sticks by Guy Lovgreen. Hutton scored another unconverted try late in the first half to put the visitors seven points behind.
Bolton ended the half on a high when their Bolton pack, continuing their robust, attritional styleof play, pushed upfield to put Lovgreen within drop-goal range.
He successfully converted to put Bolton within distance at the break.
The second half continued in the same vein as the first with further robust play from the Bolton forwards, some mercurial play from the half backs and scything runs from the three-quarters.
But it was again to no avail as the Hutton defence stood strong and frustrated the visitors.
The game remained in the balance until Hutton scored a further two unconverted tries late in the second half.
With minutes remaining, Bolton won a lineout close to the opposition try-line which they drove to within striking distance where Dave Evans saw the opportunity and smashed home a late consolation try.
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