Stanley boss John Coleman couldn’t fault his side’s effort against Bolton – but was frustrated they “gifted chances”.

Cameron Jerome, Aaron Morley and Kyle Dempsey were all on target for the visitors, while Alex Henderson got his first gaol for the Reds with a lovely strike.

“I thought we were great tonight, they are a good team,” said Coleman. “They made a lot of changes, but they have a lot of options with the players they put in and brought on.

“We joked in the dressing room it was probably the strongest bench that has ever come to this club!

“The only disappointing thing was they went in with the lead (at half time), they shouldn’t have.

“We gifted them the first goal and the second, we’ve lost the ball on the edge of their box, they’ve countered well and it is a penalty.

“They hadn’t really troubled us up to that point. We had the lion’s share of pressure but didn’t make great chances.

He added: "I am delighted for Alex, he is a good player and is only going to get better. You can see the willingness to step up.”

Jerome’s opener came when the experienced forward pounced on a weak backpass and kept his cool to life over the onrushing Joe Walsh.

“I’ve just said that to the lads, you might get away with that in League Two,” Coleman continued.

“You do get punished with the League One level of strikers. I can’t fault their finishes, they were good. The disappointing thing was the chances we gifted them.

“I am also a bit disappointed with the booking count, I don’t think it reflected the game. It just seems to be a common thread against Accrington at the moment.”

The Stanley chief was keen to go as far as possible in the competition but reckons Bolton are the strongest team out of those reamining.

“We have got to take the positives from it,” he explained. “We wanted to go to Wembley.

“I think at some point, if we wanted to win that competition, we would have had to face Bolton because they are probably the best team in it.”