Despite his beloved Everton going down 2-1 at Anfield in the Premier League, the Whites boss has his mood improved somewhat by a scintillating 4-1 win at the Toughsheet.

Beaming after the final whistle, Schumacher admitted he might give Match of the Day a miss in order to re-watch an electric first half in which Bolton scored three and could have helped themselves to plenty more.

“I asked my dad on the way off the pitch how we (Everton) went on – and I can’t say I’m too surprised,” he told The Bolton News. “Liverpool are playing well at the minute.

“But I wasn’t arsed if I’m honest… I just wanted us to win. That was the most important thing and I would have traded it 100 per cent.”

It had been 10 years since Bolton beat Wigan on their own turf, a statistic that hung heavy over the game in the build up.

“To win a game is really important, and to do it against a local rival in a derby game, in a fixture that we haven’t had lots of recent success in, probably that’s the most pleasing thing,” Schumacher said.

“We have put all that to bed now. We won away from home last time against them, and managed to do it today, so to just stop all of those records, that’s probably the best thing about it.”

Schumacher had been confident that things were heading in the right direction despite racking up a number of drawn games in recent weeks.

Against Wigan, Bolton found both the performance level and the ruthlessness in front of goal to earn a famous result.

“I felt that the team are doing exactly what we’re asking them to do, and we keep performing well,” he said. “We just probably haven’t been clinical enough with chances that we’ve had, and today we were.

“That first half performance was really good. Out of possession we nicked the ball a couple of times off Wigan, and were dangerous when we won it, and then the things that we worked on in the training in the week – getting into areas, and where we crossed the ball, getting people in the right areas – was excellent.

“To score the three goals the way we did was great, and it gives us confidence and belief, I suppose, moving forward.”

Though Wanderers were 4-0 up early in the second half, with Marcus Forss scoring twice in his first start for the club, they still had to defend stoutly to ensure Wigan did not get back into the contest.

Paul Mullin came up with a fine finish from the edge of the box – but the Whites defended 16 corners and a number of other set pieces, much to the manager’s delight.

“I think when you win a game 4-1 you know that players have played well but we didn’t have it all our own way,” he said. “We had to defend at times in that second half, and Wigan had loads of corners and kept putting it in the box, even in the first 60 seconds they had two corners, didn’t they? 

“Big Chris Forino just bashes everything out with his head, he was immense. 

“The only negative is we didn’t keep a clean sheet, because as a team, that’s what we were trying to pride ourselves on, but it was a good finish from Mullin, so fair play to that.

“It was a good performance from everyone, we were dangerous with the ball, and as I say, clinical and ruthless, which was the best thing.” 

“It’s nice to go in with that cushion, but I think the game panned out as we expected. It was intense, they put us under pressure straight away, and when we won the ball in the areas that we did, the spaces were what we expected.

“We capitalised on that and scored three goals, which gives everybody a boost in the first half, and at half-time we just said: ‘Look, these are going to come out, they’re not going to give up, they’ll change things at half-time and they’ll have a go, and if we can get the next goal, it’s probably game over from then’, which it turned out to be.

“Obviously, as I said before, we had to defend a little bit second half after they scored their goal, and then we settled down again towards the end and seen it out, so it was a good day.”