OLD Boltonians’ warm-up for tomorrow night’s Lancashire FA Amateur Cup final may not have gone entirely to plan but they at least provided plenty of entertainment in a 5-4 defeat to Bury GSOB.

The side had not played since late February so the club booked an artificial pitch in Darwin to ensure the game went ahead and boosted the players’ match sharpness.

But they could not warm up for their final against Southport and Ainsdale Amateurs with a victory, despite leading 3-1.

“We hadn’t played for a few weeks,” said assistant manager Phil Eccleshare, in charge of the side in the absence of brother Steve, who had been hospitalised by a training-ground injury. “So it was important we got some game-time into the lads. We were happy we got four goals but not with the five we let in. We did okay though, we went a goal down but Lee Worswick put a free kick right into the top corner of the goal to level it up, then Gary Peden followed up a shot and put us 2-1 up.

“We were controlling the game at that stage and Leon Farrimond had shot out of nowhere that went in to make it 3-1.”

From that point it rapidly went downhill for the cup finalists, however. They shipped four goals without reply to trail 5-3. Although Lucas Gaynor pulled a goal back with a cross that was caught by the wind and evaded everyone on its path into the back of the net, a late rally by Old Bolts came to nothing.

“We slacked off when we were 3-1 up and never got back on it,” added Eccleshare. “We pushed for a goal late on and we had one cleared off the line with just about the last kick. “There was a lot of rustiness in the team, we stopped stringing passes together and panic set in when we were defending.”

The club is waiting on confirmation that the final, to be played at Lancashire FA’s Leyland headquarters, will go ahead but, with several absences, including leading scorer Darren Dalton through a four-game ban, would not be averse to the match being re-arranged.

“There is nothing we can do about Daz being out,” said Eccleshare. “Saturday was the first of four games he’ll miss, but we have one or two others who are missing through work and home commitments too.

“It would be a shame to play it and not be able to field the best team we possibly can.”

Elsewhere in the Premier Division, Little Lever were also defeated, 2-1 at Old Mancunians.

In the West Lancashire League Division One, CMB’s Liam Carr and Mike McGinley each scored but they lost 4-2 at Milnthorpe Corinthians.