The chances stacked up for Moyes’ men though, as Jagielka headed Bilyaletdinov’s arcing free kick powerfully to draw a smart save from Jaaskelainen.

But then Bilyaletdinov  found Pienaar’s whose slide rule pass fed Yakubu and the Nigerian looked to be through on goal until he was grounded by a clumsy shove from last-man Gretar Steinsson. The Trotters defender was giving his marching orders by Alan Wiley, and Mikel Arteta curled the resultant free kick wonderfully over the bar and into the top corner of Jaaskelainen’s goal.

Bolton refused to play dead though, Zat Knight heading a free kick over the bar five minutes later.

Moyes showed impressive positivity with his changes; Leon Osman was introduced for a tiring Yakubu as the blues inevitably began to dominate Bolton’s ten men.

Then in the game’s dying minutes Everton hit the cross bar through an Osman strike. And the little midfielder did splendidly just after to pull a pass across the Bolton goal which Saha dummied and the unmarked Steven Pienaar rapped home to secure all three points.

There was still time for Phil Neville to tease Matt Taylor with some flashy footwork on the edge of the box, and fire his shot wide, before Wiley blew the final whistle.

Everton: Howard, Neville (Capt), Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Heitinga, Cahill (Saha, 62), Pienaar, Arteta, akubu, Anichebe.

Subs: Nash, Hibbert, Yobo, Bilyaltedinov, Osman, Rodwell.

Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Robinson, Muamba, Knight, Steinsson, Cohen (Davies, 84), Elmander, (Ricketts 72), Lee, O’Brien, Wilshere (Taylor 80), Davies.

Subs: Cahill, Riga, Habsi, Weiss.

Ref: Alan Wiley