Bolton 2nd XI 2 Didsbury Northern 2

THE second team went into this game against second placed Didsbury Northern having gone without a win for four matches, their longest such streak since the 1998-1999 season.

Bolton started the match seemingly intent on ending this disappointing record, and it turned out to be thoroughly entertaining stuff.

End to end for the first ten minutes, Bolton keeper Goldsbrough had to be on his toes to save a startling reverse-stick effort from arguably Didsbury's best player, but the Bolton defence of Javed Chowdry, Tom Hopwood, Anthony Davis, marshalled superbly by captain Richard Guest, held firm.

The deadlock was broken by an unlikely scorer. Left back Ian Smith, pushed up to left wing due to the absence of Ashurst, popped up to tip a strike from Tonge over the goalkeeper to finish a slick penalty corner move.

Realising that their opponents were going to be no pushovers, Didsbury piled pressure onto the diminished Bolton back line, only to be hit on the break by a superb, flowing move.

Tom Hopwood's sideline hit was deflected by Smith into the path of Atkins. He held off his man long enough to slip a lovely pass through to Friend, who wasted no effort in sending the keeper to the ground and finishing with a cool reverse-stick flick to the bottom corner of the goal.

Going into the second half, a two-goal cushion was an unexpected luxury for Bolton, and it proved just too difficult to hold on to. Possession and chances were shared evenly between the two teams, but the finishing of the Didsbury side was excellent.

Goldsbrough was beaten one-on-one for their first goal, and soon after, a Didsbury forward was allowed to walk into the Bolton D and shoot unchallenged.

The rebound was nudged in for the equaliser, and Bolton were left to think about producing results and not just entertaining hockey in the future.

Bolton 3rd XI 4 Formby 0

A reshuffled starting line up hoping to make amends for some recent poor results, paid dividends and Bolton went on the rampage against a fancied Formby.

Bolton pressed from the start and took the lead when Stuart Wallace found Richard Moore with a pin point pass, who then stroked the ball home.

As Bolton pressed on, a good interchange between Matthew Simpson and Moore, allowed Tom Nelson to make it 2-0.

After the break, another move involving Simpson sent Moore on his way to score his second to give Bolton a 3-0 lead. The fourth goal soon followed when quick thinking by Lee Williams led to confusion in the Formby defence and Stuart Wallace popped up to score his first goal of the season. A good team performance all round as the third eleven finally produced a performance worthy of a 4-0 victory. Bolton 4th XI 1 Bowden 3

The game started with much better attacking moves by Bolton creating varying changes but all went begging. As Bolton where having much more of the game Bowdon took the lead with a disputed strike that just squeezed past Julian Higginbottom 5/8s legs. Bolton took the attack back to Bowdon with the midfield of Yogen Patel and Simon Coles creating some more good changes, which resulted in a short corner, which Vinod Patel converted.

The second half saw more of Bowdon attacking and forced at least 7 short corners, which eventually created another change, which was converted to a 2-1 lead. Bolton started again with good hockey and Yogen Patel and Peter Friend played again some good hockey and gave the forwards Andrew Jones and Damien some more room and changes to force the draw.

Eventually Damien took the ball round the keeper only to see his shot being saved on the line by a defender. After that attack the game seem to finish only for Bowdon to score a late goal in the last minute of play to leave Bolton dejected with their third straight defeat this season after played a much better game of hockey.

Fifths fade Bolton 5th XI 1

Southport 2

BOLTON travelled to an experienced Southport on the back of two defeats, hoping for a swift turn around of fortune. They drew first blood when Philbin was on hand to crack home a brilliant cross from Walsh but Southport came back into the game and scored a late winner.

Bolton Badgers 1

Urmston Badgers 1

A share of the spoils in a hard fought but fair encounter, David Flanagan and James Hilton worked tirelessly in midfield. Urmston who scored first, against the run of play. Bolton showed great spirit by equalising through William Heaney. Badgers rally