BOLTON RUFC skipper Chris Cockton has emphasised the importance of consistency as his team bid to close the gap at the top of the league.

The Cherry and Whites’ have struggled at the hands of the weather of late, once again having last weekend’s game against Ashton-Under-Lyne abandoned due to a frozen pitch.

However, despite playing just three games since the end of November, they sit in second place and appear to have found a winning formula.

They have won their last four games in the North Lancashire and Cumbria league and will be looking to continue that run away at Silloth on Saturday.

Cockton believes the team has what it takes to carry on their formidable form.

“Its just consistency – consistency in the way we apply the game plan, consistency in selection as much as possible and consistency from the players with the training and the effort that they put in.

“The selection has not been the most consistent but we’ve had injuries and other various things that have affected that and that’s always going to be the case.

“We’ve not got the easiest of games this weekend, we’re playing at a club that, while we’ve played them twice before, we’ve never played them away from home, so that’s a new experience for us and its just important that we don’t let that get the better of us.

"Hopefully we do what we do best and come away with the victory.”

Bolton may have never played Silloth away from home but they have played them once before at home in the league. That game finished 56-3 to the home side, and as a result they will travel to the Cumbrian coast confident of bringing the points back to Avenue Street.

“It’s going to be a cold day, but hopefully that will mean a relatively hard pitch, and we love to play on a hard deck.

“They are very much a rugby league town based north of Workington, so they have some power out in the backs. It's just important that we try and play the union aspects of the game really well.”

“We set our stall out this season to win promotion and we want to win the league, that’s a big ask given the points gap at the moment but it's not unachievable so we’ve got to be confident going into games.

“I think if you don’t go in confident you’re setting yourself up to fail. But its very important the lads understand the difference between confidence and cockiness.”