AS afternoons in the FA Cup go, Bolton Wanderers have had few more straightforward.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson’s hat-trick effectively shock-proofed this contest before half time, and shortly after the break Dan Nlundulu scored a quick-fire double that underlined his own resurgence in a Whites shirt.

It could, and probably should, have been more. But the enterprising football dried up somewhat surprisingly in the last half hour, leaving the game to peter out.

Evatt made seven changes to the side that had drawn at Oxford United in midweek but, as if to emphasise the depth in the squad, the line-up could very easily have been League One worthy.

Bodvarsson’s first goal was a work of art, a 20-pass move finished with a quick exchange between Will Forrester and Gethin Jones on the right edge of the box and finished into the bottom corner despite Jonathan Mitchell’s best efforts.

Nlundulu made the second one, muscling Kayne Ramsay off the ball on the left wing and cutting into the penalty box to calmly roll a pass for Bodvarsson to finish from close range.

And the hat-trick arrived a couple of minutes before half time when Carlos Mendes Gomes’s shot was parried into Bodvarsson’s path.

Before the players could get back down the tunnel, however, some sloppy defending on the edge of the box gave George Thomson a shooting opportunity. Harrogate’s best player on the day did not waste it, driving past Nathan Baxter from 20 yards to inflict the first goal scored against Bolton since October 24 at Wycombe.

Nlundulu led a one-man charge after the break to take out his frustration on the men from North Yorkshire.

He scored twice in three minutes – the first a fine solo run, the second a nonchalant near post flick from Kyle Dempsey’s low ball – to put himself on the verge of a hat-trick.

But for some good goalkeeping from Mitchell he would have had it, and the Town stopper also prevented Dempsey from getting on the scoresheet on his long-awaited return to the starting line-up.

When Dion Charles, Josh Sheehan, Vic Adeboyejo and Paris Maghoma entered the fray late on, alongside the returning Zac Ashworth, Bolton looked primed to rattle a few more goals.

But their inventive football dried up and Harrogate nearly grabbed another consolation before the end.