For the first time since he took charge at Wanderers, Ian Evatt might be able to sit down and enjoy his Christmas dinner without worrying about what is happening on the pitch.

Beset by problems at this time of year in each of his previous two seasons, there has been little room for festive cheer as the club anxiously counted down the days to January for remedial work in the transfer window.

In 2020, four points from a possible 15, a year later a Covid-ravaged squad lost both the games they managed to play, but this time around the players dashed off for their Christmas party in good spirits, banking three points against Exeter City in the most comfortable fashion imaginable.

This campaign has been a hard one to gauge for Bolton fans. On one hand the club has remained on course for their generally assumed target, the play offs, whilst on the other, there has been an undercurrent of disappointment that missed chances and dropped points might have added up to something more. Watching Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town race away in the top two positions has only heightened the sense of ‘what if?’ But perhaps in this season of giving it is also fair to dish out some praise? Some of the pre-season promotion favourites would gladly swap places – Wycombe, Peterborough, Portsmouth – and it seems each time Evatt’s side is knocked down, as they were in defeat to Shrewsbury the previous weekend, they get back up again. There is a song in there somewhere.

Dion Charles scored his 10th goal of the season against Exeter, the first Wanderers player to do that before Christmas since the great Nicolas Anelka in 2007. And yet in true Bolton style there seems a need to play down that achievement, because some of his total had been added in the Papa Johns Trophy, or that the chances he missed means he should have more. It really is a most depressing trait.

Bolton will face tougher tests than Exeter, whose submissive first-half performance was simply woeful. And, yes, their run of fixtures between December 27th meeting with Derby County and the mid-January reverse fixture at Pride Park will reveal a lot more about their promotion credentials. For now, though, isn’t it okay to feel a little positive and enjoy the Whites fighting at the right end of the table, capable of playing the type of football we saw in the first half on Saturday afternoon?

Missing captain Ricardo Santos, vice-captain Gethin Jones, Amadou Bakayoko, Lloyd Isgrove, George Thomason and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, this was practically the only senior 18 that Evatt could name without drafting in the B Team. And due credit, there was not a poor performance among the 16 that took to the pitch against the Grecians.

Charles has found his devilment again, took his goal well and hit the post twice. Alongside him, Dapo Afolayan showed more signs that he is getting to grips with playing up front in this system, receiving the ball with back to goal and linking play.

Kieran Lee took the captain’s armband and positively purred in the first half, picking up spaces around the penalty box that left Exeter’s defenders floundering, and alongside him in midfield both Josh Sheehan and Aaron Morley sacrificed some of their more creative flair for work-rate.

Wanderers have been rather lopsided at times this season, such has been their reliance on the considerable skill of young Liverpool loanee Conor Bradley. His partnership with Gethin Jones, himself a full-back in all but name, has produced the vast majority of Bolton’s attacking threat and that has – at times – been problematic when teams have decided to double up and snuff out Bradley by any means necessary.

It was encouraging to see both sides of the pitch working well against Exeter. George Johnston stepped out of the back three to link up with Morley, Lee and Jack Iredale on the left, meaning the Grecians did not know which way to look at times.

Both Bradley and Charles’s goals came from the left side, and within the first half hour, a rare luxury in a season when the Whites have left it late, so often.

Wanderers had not actually taken the lead in a game since October. But once Bradley placed his sixth goals of the season past Jamal Blackman there was never a moment where you doubted where the three points would end up.

Bradley should have had more. One comical header wide from smack bang in front of goal will hopefully end up on a well-meaning blooper reel at the end-of-year promotion party.

Charles too was unlucky that his 26th minute strike, laid on by Johnston, was his only one of the game. A deft near-post header and a clever shot on the turn both bounced off the base of the post.

The comparison to the free-flowing first half and the slow, stubborn second was stark. It looked obvious that Bolton’s players were tired – be that from their exertions in midweek against United, or their lack of training time at Ice Station Zebra / Lostock – but there was still something to admire by the way the Whites defended their penalty box.

Johnston’s bravery and willingness to block is well documented. If the former Liverpool defender can gain some confidence and fluency in possession, he has a genuine chance of playing at a higher level.

Eoin Toal started in Jones’ position on the right and also turned in his most encouraging 90 minutes since signing from Derry City at the start of the year. Winning his battles in classic centre-half style at times, he also took the handbrake off and ventured forward to start off a few attacks. Like Johnston, that will be the area he most needs to improve in the months to come.

Will Aimson anchored the back three having played just 60 minutes of football since mid-October. And while there has been plenty said and written about where he stands in the defensive queue at the UniBol, this kind of solid performance showed he has something to give.

Exeter huffed and puffed in the second half but created virtually nothing. Their manager, Gary Caldwell, aimed his fury at referee Scott Oldham for having disallowed a Josh Key goal in the second half for offside.

In truth, the whole Bolton defence had acknowledged the linesman’s call before the ball hit the back of the net, so Caldwell’s anger seemed a little odd.

Wanderers were able to conjure enough experience and energy from their five substitutes to see the game out comfortably, which is not something with which we have grown accustomed this season. Doing it the easy way has never been the ‘Bolton way’.

But here’s to this becoming the new norm. Early goals, smiling supporters, Mariah Carey bouncing from the speakers as the fans slip and slide out into the icy night to start their countdown to Christmas.

It may all change after Derby – save a humbug or two in that event. For now, though, Wanderers fans might just raise a glass to the fact that things are really not that bad at all.