LITTLE Hulton Reds remain bottom of North West Men's League Division Three, but they closed the gap on ninth-placed Bolton Mets with a 34-18 victory over Fitton Hill.

The Oldham-based visitors had beaten Little Hulton on the opening day of the season, so the hosts were out with a point to prove.

The Reds spent the vast majority of the first five minutes camped on their own line, but they held firm and thought they had opened the scoring only for the referee to call play back for a forward pass.

But Little Hulton weren’t denied for long as Joe Lyon received the ball to burst the Fitton Hill ranks for the first try of the game, the extras being added by Wes Winder.

The points did wonders for the Reds' confidence and it was all one-way traffic until a missed tackle let Fitton’s stand-off sprint home from 50 yards to make it 6-4.

The game was turned on its head by another break from the visiting stand-off, but this time he offloaded to send a team-mate in to make it 6-8 in Fitton Hill’s favour.

Little Hulton reclaimed the lead courtesy of Davy Jones who beat the opposing full-back to touch down, Winder again converting to make it 12-8 to the Reds.

Little Hulton had the advantage of playing downhill in the second half, but it was Fitton Hill who struck first with another long-range effort to level the game at 12-12.

Little Hulton took the lead once again through man-of-the-match Gareth Hessian who collected a clever kick from Winder to score under the posts.

Winder and Hessian again combined to convert Reds pressure into points, with Hessian putting the ball down in the corner from a Winder pass to make the score 24-12 to Little Hulton.

It soon became 30-12 with Hessian completing a second-half hat-trick with a replica of his first try; collecting a kick to score under the posts before Winder added the extras.

Little Hulton looked comfortable but they weren’t out of sight as the visitors pulled a converted try back with yet another long distance sprint to the line to make it 30-18.

Victory was sealed when Ross Cahill was stopped short of the Fitton Hill line and the ball was worked to Mark Parsons, who danced past three defenders to score.

With nothing but pride to play for Fitton Hill threw everything at the Reds, but they were more than up to the challenge and held out for a 34-18 win.

Next week Little Hulton play hosts to Warrington side Crosfields A with the chance to leapfrog them in the division.