BOLTON’S winning start to the season came to an end at Aspatria, where the Cherry and Whites staged a late comeback but fell just short.

The Avenue Street side had won their opening fixture in the North Lancs/Cumbria division, thumping Trafford Metrovicks 70-19, a win that followed their cup victory over Tyldesley the previous week.

But, after conceding 14 unanswered points early on in Cumbria, Bolton fought back and were one mistake away from salvaging a draw late on.

“We were 14 points behind before we really got ourselves together,” said head coach Dave Crouch. “But we played some really good rugby, there was more bite and commitment from the players and we clawed our way back against what is a really big team. And after those 14 points at least we won the rest of the game!”

Scrum-half Will Bate was at the heart of Bolton’s fightback, scoring the first of their five tries as well as putting in Niall Murphy for a score early in the second half.

Rhys Pritchard, Jonny Stanfield and Ryan McClusky also touched down to earn them a bonus point ahead of hosting unbeaten De La Salle this weekend.

“Even though we lost the game we did ourselves proud on Saturday,” added Crouch.

“Last year our heads would have dropped early on and we’d have gone under.

“Both sides scored some good tries and we came off thinking we’d done well against a big, talented side. The result didn’t go our way but we improved our performance.

“They will win a lot of games at home, and we have to try to make our own home ground a fortress, starting on Saturday.

“We’ve got a few things to work on in training this week, our defence and finishing, but we won’t worry too much about the threat De La Salle pose, we’ll just look to play our rugby and improve again.”