Bolton made the most of Barnsley skipper Mads Andersen’s early dismissal to claim a comfortable 3-0 victory at Oakwell which sees them leap-frog above their play-off rivals.
Andersen was given his marching orders in just the 12th minute after bringing down Dion Charles inside the box.
Charles made no mistake from the spot to put Bolton ahead, and then further goals from Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Kyle Dempsey wrapped up the points as Wanderers climbed up to fifth in League One.
The visitors had the first sight on goal four minutes in but Charles, having had the beating of Jordan Williams, fired his shot into the side-netting.
However, Bolton did not have to wait much longer for the incident which would end up having a major impact on the game.
Charles was sent crashing by Andersen in the area and, as well as the Barnsley defender seeing red, the Bolton forward made the home side pay by firing his spot-kick past Brad Collins.
Despite having a man disadvantage, Herbie Kane almost levelled for Barnsley five minutes from the break, but his low effort from outside the box went narrowly wide.
Ian Evatt’s side were then gifted a second goal in the 41st minute following a loose pass from Robbie Cundy. Bodvarsson beat Collins to the ball and passed into an empty net to double their advantage.
Dempsey finished off the scoring when he made it 3-0 in the 76th minute. Intricate build-up play on the left finished with Dempsey slotting past Collins to complete a nice team move.
