BOLTON Rugby Union Club hope they can catch high-flying Kendal at the right time when they return to action tomorrow.

The Avenue Street men are deep in a relegation battle in their first season in North One West – the highest level in the club’s history.

They expected nothing else at the start of the season and survival has consistently been the key word used by club officials.

The team have given a solid account of themselves in the first half of the season and are one place outside the three-team relegation zone thanks to ending 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.

The situation could have looked a lot healthier had they made it three successive victories, but defeat at third-bottom New Brighton last time out kept them firmly in the mix at the bottom.

They know they will have their work cut out getting back to winning ways against a third-placed Kendal side who have ambitions of promotion and who beat Bolton 46-3 in the reverse fixture in September.

But captain Chris Cockton hopes the Christmas factor could help them pull off a shock result.

“We've had a couple of weeks break between games and a week off completely from training,” he said.

“The idea was for players to be able to enjoy Christmas then come back training before the Kendal game.

“We want to be ready, and hopefully they won’t be in the best condition after Christmas and we can get something from the game.

“We know it will be tough. They beat us fairly comfortably in the first game and they are looking to get back into the national leagues.

“But we have shown this season that we can match anyone on our day.”

After two successive promotions, and with virtually the same set of players, Bolton were under no illusions about the degree of difficulty awaiting them this season and where they were likely to be figuring in the league table.

And one game into the second half of the campaign, Cockton is fairly satisfied with how his team is faring.

“The target was survival and remains survival,” he said. “We’ve played some good rugby and shown we can compete in this division.”