BOLTON RUFC coach Nick Holmes has blamed his side's bad run on injuries to key players.

The Avenue Street men are firmly gripped in a relegation battle after losing six games in a row.

And matters went from back to worse during Saturday's 18-15 defeat to Wilmslow when they followed up the loss of captain Chris Cockton for the season the previous week by losing his replacement.

Holmes, whose side have no game this weekend, said: “We have had key injuries at the wrong times; we just have to try as hard as we can with the players we’ve got available.

“To lose the captain is never a good thing and the position he plays is very specialist, and Ash Cooper who took the position of captain is out for the season now too. We’ll be missing their leadership now.”

Two tries from Wilmslow’s outstanding New Zealander, Vili Tuipulotu, and a nine-point haul for winger Lawrence James proved too much for the Cherry and Whites.

Wingers Jonny Stanfield and Rhys Pritchard both crossed the whitewash for Bolton but it was not enough to prevent defeat.

“It was a bit of a strange game, very open, both sides had chances, and we could have won it,” said Holmes.

He added: “It was disappointing to not take advantage when they had a player in the sin bin in the second half.

“Our defence was certainly a lot better than it has been; we are getting better but it’s still nowhere near where it needs to be.”

The coach knows his side are now reliant on other results, saying: “It will be hard, we have to win the last two games and that might not be enough.

“Obviously there is a chance that the other two [teams battling with them to avoid relegation] might drop points, but equally at the end of the season it’s difficult to know if the mid-table teams have any motivation left so we’ll have see how it goes.”

With the bottom three clubs all being relegated Bolton, on 36 points, are competing with Eccles and New Brighton, who have 40 and 33 points respectively for the 11th place birth, currently held by Eccles.

With two fixtures remaining this season – against bottom-of-the-table Wigton on April 11 and fourth-placed Penrith the following week, Bolton know they need to win both games and rely on other results to go their way for them to stay up.