EAGLEY are down at the bottom but are certainly not out of optimism.

The Dunscar men take on fourth-placed reigning champions Farnworth Social Circle today looking up from their position adrift at the bottom with no league wins so far.

Team manager Ian Wainman accepts it would take a dramatic turnaround in fortunes to see his side survive in the Premier Division, but he says not too much has changed from last season when they were the lowest club to make the cut when the Bolton League was split into two divisions for the first time.

"We were the 10th best team last season, and deserved to be so, and we're the 10th best team this season," he said.

"It's unlikely we'll stay up this season but it won't be for the want of trying.

"We'll need to win five of the last seven games to have a chance and we'll be going all out to get them.

"We've had windows of opportunity to win games but just haven't been able to take them.

"The big thing for us is the number of young players we've got.

"This is Paul Rayment's last season, and Dave Shuttleworth and Danny Counsell have helped us out this season.

"We expect to have a few more younger players looking to break through next season, and if they are not ready to play in the first team they'll get the chance to play in the second team.

"We've relied a lot on our pro Agha Salman this season and he's done well although probably not as well as we'd have hoped.

"Jack Wainman is 21, and Will Shuttleworth, Joe Baldwin and Zaid Patel are all 18 and those four have played a lot of senior cricket this season.

"We have a group of about eight or nine 16-18-year-olds who could play in the first or second team so it's a work in progress at the moment."

Wainman draws comparisons with another club who had a winless record in the not-too-distant past and also hopes a big game going on 24 hours later may have a positive spin-off for his team tomorrow.

"Nothing against Tonge because I get on well with Paul Schofield there, but no one wanted to be the first team to lose to Tonge a season or two ago and maybe no one wants to be the first team to lose to Eagley this season," he said.

"We'll keep going and keep doing our best. We've run a few team close this season, Simon Booth at Farnworth and Rob Houghton at Westhoughton both said how well we did against them and we gave Kearsley a good game and they're a very good side.

"But we just haven't been able to get the wins.

"Social Circle are a good side, you don't win the league last season and not be good, but they have the Hamer Cup final on Sunday and hopefully they'll have one eye on that on Saturday."