“Hopefully he can be an important player for us in the final third of the season because he can play two or three roles. If Jelavic didn’t perform then I have the option of playing Kevin as an out and out forward himself.”

Despite his Reebok quandary, Moyes is convinced that the long-term development of his team will see both Mirallas and Jelavic prosper together in the starting line-up.

“Maybe when Kevin comes in it will take some of the focal point away from Jelavic,” says the Scot. “Kevin created a lot of trouble for defences when he played and hopefully that leaves more space and gives Jelavic more chances in the box.

“Ideally we would have them both in the team. But maybe there will be times where it will benefit us that only one or the other is in the team.”

With Bolton having already sprung a surprise by dumping Sunderland out in the previous round, Everton can ill afford a repeat of the lethargic first-half performance that, but for an heroic goalkeeping display from Tim Howard, would have resulted in a heavy defeat.

Moyes believes a lacklustre showing was inevitable at some point given the size of Everton’s squad and his decision to field a strong team in the FA Cup this season.

“I got a lot of praise for playing a strong team against Cheltenham but it will have a knock-on effect in other games,” he says.

“It’s not easy with having a small squad because most players will be appearing week in, week out. They don’t really get a breather.

“Once you get out of January, you tend to see a wee bit of light in the distance and you start to kick on. The weather can start to turn and you smell the daffodils in the air and start to think you can push on.

“But I tell you what, if you’d have said at the start of the season that we’d get towards the end of January before you said a few of the key players weren’t on it I’d have taken that all day long.”

Bolton, who replaced Owen Coyle with Dougie Freedman as manager in October, have struggled to acclimatise to life in the Championship and have won only four of their last 16 games in all competitions.

The Trotters, though, have lost only three of 12 previous FA Cup ties against Everton and won their last encounter, a third round tie in 1994.

“Having a team go down and change their manager will always affect a club, and that can take time to get used to,” says Moyes.

“Bolton were in the Premier League for many years and have players with Premier League experience and quality.

“But we want to win the FA Cup every year. It’s now down to us to make that happen.”