Clinical Colts start season with a bang

A DOUBLE from David Mills and Harry Gee gave Littleborough Colts a dream start to their league campaign at Fleetwood.

Taking a 13-0 lead into the break despite not being on top, Littleborough were at their clinical best to run out 32-5 winners.

Home side Fleetwood dominated the early running in the first 15 mins of game and were forcing Boro to concede penalties in order to hold out.

A couple breaks from Brad Watts and good support from Nick Mannion gave Boro some respite and ensured Boro survived without any scratch to the scoreboard.

Watts eventually stemmed the tide slotting a penalty from 30 metres to give Boro three points and a lead they would never surrend.

This gave the side confidence and impetus as they started to break the gain line more regularly and stay on right side of whistle.

Domination in the scrum with Jack Ratcliffe, Matt Bradbury and Matt Rothwell in the front row gave the team platform too.

Unlike Fleetwood, the visitors took their chances with the first try of the new season coming out wide from Kai Sumner following a break from Bradbury and good passing options from Jacob Harrison and debutant Liam Heap.

The term ‘London Buses’ perfectly described the next five minutes of action as David Mills scored the first of his brace in similar fashion to that of Sumner.

Continuing the form shown at the first half, Boro dominated in scrum with Harvey Ashworth also proving a nuisance securing lineout ball on both throws.

Building on their territory and possession, Boro’s colts added to their lead as Harry Gee got his name on the score sheet with a couple of tries. A sniping run from Watts created the first while fine support play from Charlie Holmes gave Gee his second.

Robbie Nolan was a constant threat joining the line from full back and as always hitting hard in defence.

The coaches rang the changes with no drop in possession or dominance, although a couple of pieces of sloppy play led to a breakaway Fleetwood try.

But Boro’s David Mills scored and converted a try to give the visitors a 32-5 win.