Crewe Alex boss Alex Morris felt Bolton Wanderers were able to open his side up at will in the closing stages of their encounter in the Papa Johns Trophy as the Whites' squad strength in depth came to the fore.
In Group B of the Northern section of the draw, Wanderers took the lead early on through Amadou Bakayoko. However, the Railwaymen drew level not long after through Courtney Baker-Richardson.
Wanderers went ahead after the break thanks to Dion Charles, before Kieran Sadlier added a third with a classy finish. Charles added his second and Bolton's fourth before the end to ensure a 4-1 win.
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Wanderers were able to summon strong reinforcements from the bench. Charles, Elias Kachunga, Ricardo Santos, Conor Bradley and MJ Williams all made an appearance after the hour mark.
Morris felt his side did well to stay in the game for as long as they did, but pointed to Bolton's strength in depth off the bench. He was disappointed the scoreline got away from the Alex in the end which halted their chance of perhaps nicking a goal and taking the match to penalties.
Morris said: "It was a tough night all round. It was a tough game and we rode our luck up until the poins at which we were one each and we did ever so well to get to one each because obviously we weren't playing our strongest 11. We got to the stage midway through that second half 60 minutes in where they brought on another five first teamers and by the end their first 11 was their starting 11.
"We had players who had not played much football who haven't been selected to start for our team this season all out on the pitch together up against a good League One starting 11 by the end of the game. Once the goal went in to make it 2-1, we lost our shape, lost our discipline, went chasing the game and it then became 3-1 and 4-1 as we saw.
"Sometimes in those scenarios you just have to take your medicine and hope to nick a goal at the end to take it to penalties. But that comes with experience and a lot of those players are young and there was a lot of naivity in how we responded once we went 2-1 down. It's a tough night all round.
"I'm just disappointed tonight that the scoreline got away from us in the end. We were under pressure for large periods of the game. A good League One club and they selected a strong team tonight and made it even stronger with their substitutions, so it was difficult all round and you saw at the end as we went chasing the game, they opened us up at will and took the game completely away from us in that last 10 minutes and it's disappointing because regardless of how much we were in the game or not, 78 minutes in it's one each and you're looking towards potentially trying to nick a goal or it's going to penalties and winning the game that way, but it wasn't to be."
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