BOLTON missed the chance to put daylight between themselves and the North One West relegation zone when they went down 23-7 at New Brighton on Saturday.

The game between fourth-bottom Bolton and the team one place below them was billed by some as 'must win'.

And a victory was looking hopeful with Bolton 7-5 ahead at half time thanks to a try from James Brodie converted by Mark Doherty before the home side got the better of the second half.

With three going down, Bolton remain have an potentially enthralling battle on their hands to avoid the drop in their first season at the highest level in the club's history.

The Avenue Street men eased their situation when they ended a run of seven straight defeats with wins against two other opponents in the lower reaches of the division in the last couple of games.

Survival has been the key word from the beginning of the campaign, and captain Chris Cockton admits the situation would have looked a lot healthier had they made it a hat-trick of victories on Saturday.

"It was one we certainly wanted to win and many people might say we needed to win," he said.

"It was massively disappointing to lose, and a hard day at the office.

"We played some good rugby at times – our set piece functioned well all day led by Louis Critchlow – but we were on the wrong end of the whistle with some of the decisions which was frustrating.

"I'm not saying it would have made much difference to the result but within the game refereeing decisions depend on interpretation and we tended to get the wrong end of the interpretation.

"We also had injuries to Nick Smith who had to go off after 20 minutes and Ash Cooper who went off after 25 minutes, two players who have contributed well through the season and losing them early was a blow."