STILL smarting from surrendering their proud record at home to Oldham, Bolton are out to make amends at the expense of Trafford on Saturday.

The Cherry and Whites had been unbeaten at Avenue Street this season but, thanks to a 77th-minute penalty for the visitors, they lost 26-25 on Saturday.

It had been an indisciplined outing for Dave Crouch’s men – who had been beaten by a late three-point kick at Littleborough the previous week – and even without giving away a succession of chances to either score points or gain territory the head coach admits they had been second best by far.

“That’s two games in a row we’ve lost to a penalty in the last few minutes,” he told The Bolton News. “The first 10 minutes of the second half was the best we’d played all day but while we had a game plan we couldn’t put it together.

“I was disappointed but the lads were absolutely gutted to have lost at home for the first time. But Oldham scored three tries and we only got one so they deserved it – they wanted it more than we did. We have been going through some games where we are expecting to win but not putting in the effort.”

To add to Bolton’s woes, Crouch will be without at least two key players for the trip to Trafford, as Ryan McClusky, Gaz Pritchard and Lewis Lockett all left the Oldham match early. McClusky is expected to be fit but pulled hamstrings will most likely rule the others out until the new year.

There was a plus for Crouch on Saturday, in the form of Joe Speakman, who featured for the first XV early in the season but has been playing in the seconds for most of the campaign.

He came on in the second half due to those injuries and the coach is hopeful he will continue his development with another run-out on Saturday.

“It was nice to see we could bring on Joe and he could do a job at fly-half,” he said. “He had a game or two early on but after being in the seconds it can be difficult to come up but I was pleased with his contribution.

“I asked how he found it and he said the pace is quicker and the hits are harder. I said ‘welcome to first-team rugby’ so I’ll look forward to seeing how he does this weekend. The injuries knocked the balance of the back row but at the end of the day we just didn’t play well enough.

“When we played Trafford last time they were very difficult to break down. Hopefully it will be a fast, open game and we get a reaction after the disappointment against Oldham.”