Didsbury despair at Bolton

Didsbury Toc H continued their league campaign away at Bolton; the game started with confidence from the previous week’s victory but lacked the same passion.

Both sides started at a frantic pace although this was halted 10 minutes in as foul play by Bolton allowed an early penalty kick opportunity, unfortunately this attempt was missed by Didsbury! From the restart Didsbury continued to be the dominant forward pack in the early exchanges although they lacked the cohesiveness to enable the usual interplay that had helped to secure previous victories. The first try of the game came from a well worked move from the back of an attacking Bolton scrum which resulted in the opposition scrum half crossing in the corner. A rib injury forced centre Andy Popoola from the field. This created further problems in the back line due to players out of position and constant off side pressure from Bolton causing handling errors. Shortly before half time a calf injury also forced skipper Mike Hyde from the field. Didsbury’s injury crisis was further compounded when Prop Steven McDonough was knocked unconscious following a high impact clash of heads on the stroke of half time.

McDonough gallantly remained on the field for the start of the second half although this only lasted a matter of minutes before he had to leave the field due to dizziness. Due to front row regulations this allowed Hyde to return following sideline physio treatment (no blood capsules needed!). Didsbury then started to advance up the field with some great individual displays namely from man of the match open side Aidan Murphy. Didsbury were camped on the Bolton line for some time before persistence finally paid off when Phil Cooper barged his was over in the corner. This brought the game level although this was short lived due to Bolton securing a penalty kick. The desire to win was stronger in the Bolton team for the majority of the game although in the later stages Didsbury looked to be improving only to be held out and run out of time. Improvements need to be made this week in training as Didsbury face tougher opposition next week at Home to Littleborough