Goals from Mason Burstow, Amario Cozier-Duberry and Joel Randall secured a well-deserved three points to take the Whites up to 10th in the table.
The game lurched in Bolton’s favour just after half time after an ungainly challenge from Marcus Browne left Max Conway in a heap and forced ref Darren Drysdale to produce a red card.
After adding two more goals to their tally, Wanderers threatened to make it a landslide but lacked a touch of composure to earn a truly eye-catching scoreline.
Lewis then fouled Marcus Forss in stoppage time to earn himself a second yellow.
Schumacher didn’t go overboard in his praise for the performance but he accepted that three points was the only thing on his mind before kick-off.
He said: “We said to the players before the game that it was a must-win really, because although we’d been playing really well, to have four draws on the spin with drop points, we didn’t feel as though we deserved to drop or wanted to drop. So, today to win was the most important thing.
“I don’t think we played as well today, certainly early in the game. I thought it was a little bit scruffy, but we got a goal from a set-piece and settled everyone down, as we did against Plymouth last time we won here. So, yeah, it was an important win.
“Three goals is good, gets everybody going. Another clean sheet on the board, which is good, and we move on.”
Asked what was the most pleasing aspect of a second league win of the season, Schumacher admits at least two of his goal-scorers would benefit greatly from having got themselves on the scoresheet.
“The lads who scored the goals – it was Amario’s first league goal, Joel Randle got off the mark, which has been really important, and Mason keeps going. That is his fourth in seven games.
“It could hopefully give them three a little bit of comfort. Well, Mason doesn’t need comfort, he’s playing well, but Joel and Amario certainly. And in a difficult game against a good opponent, and it was a good game until the sending off, we kept another clean sheet and limited them to next to nothing again on the goal.
“It is pleasing from that point of view. We are going in the right direction, in my opinion, and to get three points today is what we wanted.”
The only possible downside to the day was that Burstow was forced off in the second half with a potential hamstring issue.
“Sam Dalby came on for Mason, who said he had felt a little bit of a nick in his hamstring. Hopefully it’s just a precaution but we’ll see how that is.
“We got Sam another 35 minutes, which is good. Marcus (Forss) will get better the more minutes that he plays.
“We managed to save Amario’s legs a little bit, who’s played every minute of every league game. Richard Taylor came on for Max, whose outputs have been really good, and Ibraham Cissoko gets on the pitch when there’s a bit more space, and hopefully gets him a bit of confidence.
“We used everybody that we needed to, and in the end it’s become a good day from what was an important day.”