BOLTON’S survival campaign in their first season in North One West remains delicately poised after a second successive defeat.

The Cherry and Whites are fourth bottom with six games to play, but a healthy seven points above Eccles immediately below them.

With three going down it is building up to be an exciting and nervous finish to the season.

Bolton again showed they are a match for teams in the highest level they have ever played at as they made Warrington work for their 21-7 victory.

And with second-placed Kirkby Lonsdale visiting Avenue Street this Saturday the season just keeps on throwing up challenges after two successive promotions.

Bolton started well and missed a good chance to take an early three-point lead but were always chasing the game after going 13-0 behind.

Captain Chris Cockton, who scored Bolton's try from a driving maul as the visitors made it 13-7 at half time, said his side were unlucky with one crucial decision which could have changed the game.

"Jack Robinson made a break and offloaded to me and I was tackled before I got the opportunity to catch the ball," he said.

"I would have had a clear run to the line and it shoud have been a penalty try and a yellow for their man.

"That would have made it 14-13 to us and them down a player.

"Instead we got penalised and they scored and it was 18-7.

"Now it's how we regroup and come back from that. We have a few more players available this week with people coming back which is going to help us.

"But we know what a difficult game it is going to be against Kirkby Lonsdale.

"We'd love to beat them but we know it would take something special to turn them over.

"They beat us quite convincingly in the first game and we've got to look at the bigger picture and say that a losing bonus point would be great and two losing bonus points would be very good."

A bigger game is the one that follows when Eccles come to Avenue Street in a game that could potentially have a huge bearing on which one of them could go down.

"We're obviously looking at trying to get something from Saturday's game first but we've got the Eccles game in our sights," said Cockton.

"A win in that one would give us real impetus, that's a really important game for us.

"If we can win that one and one other game in the last six and it could be enough to keep us up."

Warrington began well and took an early lead when Luke Wood slotted over a penalty. The Warrington forwards then started to take control, with debutants Mike Williams and Jordan Noone well to the fore. However, Bolton continued to defend well and soon started to gain good possession, especially from the line-outs. Eventually, Warrington started to exert pressure on the Bolton line and patiently went through the phases before Zak Lythgoe flopped over the line. Luke Wood converted to take Warrington into a 10-nil lead.

This lead was soon extended to 13 points when Luke Woodward kicked his second penalty but Bolton struck back shortly before half time when they executed a perfect driving maul to score in the corner and the try was converted so that the sides turned round with Warrington just six points ahead.

The second half developed into a dour affair, highlighted by some strange refereeing decisions. Bolton continued to threaten, especially through their outside centre, who showed both pace and good feet. Fortunately, Warrington eventually moved into a nine point lead when Luke Wood kicked a superb penalty from 40 yards.

The game was eventually secured when Warrington put together the best rugby of the afternoon. Tome Wood kicked ahead from his own 22 and the ball was picked up by Warrington’s own dancing master, Keiran Hughes, who made forty yards in his own inimitable manner before handing on to the supporting Tom Wood. The live wire scrum half then slipped the ball inside to winger Steve Pilkington who crossed the line unopposed.

“”I think today shows that we have some strength in depth,” said coach Darren Abram. “I was very pleased with the way that our young lads stepped up to plate. Next week we have a hard away trip to Penrith and I am confident we can put together a squad to meet that challenge.”