IT was cold, it was business-like, it was exactly what Wanderers needed on a day where all romantic thoughts of an FA Cup shock were quickly abandoned.

So often this season Ian Evatt’s side has managed to milk drama from games that should have been long-since settled – sometimes to their own detriment.

On this occasion, however, they managed to breeze through 90-plus minutes in a low gear, play enough football to reward the 5,523 hardy souls who turned up, and make sure the result warranted barely a mention in the following morning’s papers.

Evatt had never before won an FA Cup game as a manager, a peculiar statistic that had clearly been of some annoyance in the build-up with the spectre of Stockport County and that televised embarrassment in 2021 still looming large.

To say his side has evolved since that miserable night is an understatement, and even after making five changes to the team that had outclassed Charlton a week earlier, there was a calmness flowing right through the line-up from the very start. To use the modern vernacular, they understood the assignment, and even though the game stood goalless for more than half an hour, the prospect of Solihull taking the lead looked remote.

Moors, sitting 48 places below the Whites in the pyramid, looked well-drilled. With everything barring throwback target man Mark Beck behind the ball, they attempted to frustrate and see what they could come up with at set pieces. But Bolton’s ingenuity opened gaps, particularly when Brentford loanee Paris Maghoma got on the ball.

The midfielder has an uncanny knack of finding space on the most crowded of pitches. And while you can see his decision-making still bears the inconsistency of youth, his ability to dribble and drive is a most pleasant sight in a team that so often allows the ball to do the leg work.

Running on to a raking pass from Ricardo Santos, Maghoma should have opened the scoring early on, but was denied by a well-timed block from keeper Tommy Simkin – a young man who did his reputation absolutely no harm on the day.

He then had another curling effort bounce off the bar, the rebound headed wide by Gethin Jones, a Bolton goal by that stage looking a formality.

Strikers Dan Nlundulu and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson looked eager to make a statement on a rare start. Both worked hard, showed their value in the build-up phases but the Icelander was especially unlucky to see two goal-bound efforts cleared off the line. Both players could have used a goal to spark their season.

As ever, Bolton’s big threats were out wide. Jones enjoyed a return to wing-back and likewise Randell Williams got into some dangerous positions, the latter having a big penalty appeal turned down by referee Scott Simpson, whose own puzzling decision-making on the day bore some scrutiny.

Aaron Morley is also returning to his best, seizing the chance to play virtually a whole game on the front foot, his set piece deliveries were a constant threat.

Bolton’s lack of variation on free kicks and corners was once the stuff of concern. These days, however, there is a buzz of excitement to see what bag of tricks they are going to create.

One variation on the corner that undid Charlton should have earned Williams a penalty but, somewhat ironically, two straightforward balls into the proverbial mixer would prove profitable for defenders Ricardo Santos and Will Forrester for the first and third goals. Sometimes, simplicity really is the key.

In between, Maghoma netted the second. Bodvarsson had a low hooked off the line by James Clarke, and with a swerve of the hips that Elvis would have been proud to call his own, the midfielder left the same defender sat on his backside before drilling a shot into the net via a deflection off Gus Mafita.

Nathan Baxter dealt with a couple of shots from distance but Solihull’s early stubbornness had all but vanished by the time Dion Charles entered the fray from the bench.

Bolton’s top scorer wasn’t impressed to be left out of a game which looked, on paper, like it could be profitable.

“He gave me the death stare when I announced the team,” Evatt said after the game. “He just wants to score goals. Then he is telling me at half time ‘there’s goals for me, let me on the pitch’. But that’s him. I was cringing when he is challenging for 50-50s with the keeper, though.”

It was the arrival of another sub, Luke Matheson, that gave him a golden chance to move on to 11 goals for the season. The former Rochdale midfielder was dragged back by Moors captain Jamie Osbourne on the very edge of the box – referee Simpson deciding to point to the spot.

Keeper Simkin pulled off a smart save to leave Charles with his head in his hands. But from there on in, there was nothing surer than the fact that the Northern Ireland international would have the last laugh.

Sure enough, Cameron Jerome and Williams kept the ball alive in the box, and it dropped nicely for Charles to crash home the fourth with five minutes to go. Instant redemption.

It wasn’t his last involvement, either. In stoppage time, Charles was fouled on the touchline in front of the dugouts by Osbourne, prompting referee Simpson to reach to his pocket for his second yellow card. The decision felt a bit unnecessary, the smirk on the Bolton player’s face likewise, but if you took such devilment out of his game, you’d only have half the player.

Wanderers had done the job they needed to do, Evatt had been able to rest up some of his key men before the Shrewsbury game on Tuesday night, and a place in the second round draw was safely secured. If only everything in life could be as straightforward when it comes to this wonderful club!