Ian Evatt welcomed a clean bill of health and a place in the last 16 of the Papa John’s Trophy as Wanderers get chance to draw breath.
Evatt’s men made hard of work of beating a youthful Fleetwood Town side 1-0 thanks to a first-half Kieran Lee goal.
It wasn’t always pretty viewing for the die-hard fans who braved a miserable night at the University of Bolton Stadium.
But the Whites can now look forward to a blank weekend before facing Fleetwood again in League One next Tuesday night.
“The main positives are we’re through and we’ve had no more injuries,” said Evatt.
“The most important thing tonight was to get through. We did that but credit to them.
“They were a team of kids who had good energy, good desire and ran their socks off.
“I thought they were excellent. We weren’t but we’ve got a few days now to re-group and refresh and get ready for the league game.”
Evatt made just two changes to his starting line-up as Wanderers completed a winning end to a hectic November which has seen them play eight times.
That has included two victories in the Trophy, with Evatt’s side now three rounds from Wembley with the next stage of the competition to come in the first week of January.
“People talk about the team I picked tonight but I didn’t really have much choice, to be honest,” added the Bolton boss.
“I had to pick the players we’ve got available. We left Rico out and Kacha out, who are big, big players for us, to give them some rest and tried to get Kieran and Doyler off as soon as we could to try and give them some rest.
“The players looked jaded and it’s human nature to mentally come off it a little bit, especially when they see their team sheet, and the trophy itself which, until the later stages, probably doesn’t get the respect it deserves – even though we’re doing the best we can in it.
“We can park this now until the new year, which is good, and we can fight now on two fronts and have a good opportunity of getting to Wembley.”
To watch the manager's full post-match interview, click HERE