FLEETWOOD caretaker boss Stephen Crainey thought his young side deserved more from their trip to Wanderers in the Papa John’s Trophy.

Having made 11 changes to his team at the UniBol after a 2-2 League One draw at AFC Wimbledon, Crainey was pleased with the way his players reacted to going a goal behind against Bolton.

Fleetwood had a handful of good chances towards the end of the second half to take the game to a penalty shootout but, in the end, Kieran Lee’s goal proved the difference on the night.

Asked why he made such wholesale changes for the second round tie, the former Scotland international said: “The thinking was that we’ve got a lot of good young players at the football club, and I thought we showed that, especially in the second half tonight.

“It took the players a little while to adapt and adjust to the physicality in the first half but once we got the ball on the floor, I thought we caused them loads of problems. We probably should have scored a couple of goals in the latter stages of the game. I just said to them in there, I felt for them because I thought we deserved at least a draw in the game.

“We looked the more likely to score at the end and that was the most pleasing aspect, young lads in the ascendancy, showing good tempo with their desire and hunger to go and get that goal but, unfortunately, we never got it in the end.”

Crainey has been with Fleetwood at Under-23s level for the last four years and stepped into the vacant spot after the departure of Simon Grayson last week.

And it was his familiarity with many of the homegrown players which convinced him to rest many of the senior players who will line up against Accrington this weekend, then Wanderers at Highbury on Tuesday.

“I’ve worked with some of those lads for the last two or three years and they’ve got some outstanding quality. They showed it on the pitch after settling into the game, but once they felt comfortable, I thought we were the better side,” he said.

“They are in my thoughts for the game at the weekend and in the games moving forward. That’s what you want as a manager, you want as many selection headaches as you can and that’s what they’ve done to me tonight.

“A lot of the first-team players have played a lot of football recently and I thought this was the right time to give them a rest. This gave the younger lads a great chance and they responded excellently, I’m just gutted that they didn’t get anything out of the game because they deserved it.”