ANY lingering hopes Bolton had of staging a late charge for the top two were finally killed stone dead in a disappointing afternoon at Oldham.

The team had made the short journey down the M62 aiming to gain a measure of revenge for their 26-25 home defeat in December. Victory would also have kept their slim chances of making the top two alive.

But those ambitions died a death at Byrth Road as Jonny Stanfield’s unconverted try was not nearly enough to prevent their hosts running out 23-5 winners, a victory that lifts them above Bolton into sixth in the North Lancs/Cumbria League table.

“It was a bad day for us, quite simply they wanted it more than we did,” reflected Bolton’s head coach, Dave Crouch. “We stood off them, allowed them to play and let them run at us, and when we did have the ball we made too many unforced errors, which meant we didn’t have enough of the ball to work with.

“Oldham have a very big pack that caused problems but we’ve played against big sets of forwards in most of the games we’ve played so that shouldn’t have been a factor.”

Winger Stanfield, who filled in at full-back, provided the day’s only highlight and he and fly-half Joe Speakman can be proud of their efforts. And Crouch barely managed to find any other positives, aside from a staunch goal-line defence that, ultimately, denied the hosts a bonus point.

The goalposts have moved slightly for the Cherry and Whites. Crouch had set his men a target of six wins from their final eight games and after their loss at Oldham he has amended that – to six from seven.

That begins on Saturday when Aldwinians visit Avenue Street. The side from Audenshaw were defeated 38-7 when they last met in October, but Crouch expects a much closer affair this time around.

“It was a big win for us in the last game, we beat them quite comfortably but we know it will be difficult this time,” he said. “They have won their last three and had a big win on Saturday (41-5 against Fleetwood) so they are in decent form.

“We had to make some changes for the Oldham game, it ‘s something we have had to contend with all year, and we lost Louis Critchlow to an ankle injury in Saturday’s game as well.

“He is unlikely to play against Aldwinians on Saturday so we’ll have to see what team we can put out.

“There are some very good players at the club, the junior section is going well, there are some really good players in the Colts team and the second team are on a really good run so the future of the club is looking okay.”