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Stuart Gray, the Northampton Town manager, praised the courage of Adebayo Akinfenwa after the forward disregarded a series of injury problems to secure a deserved Carling Cup victory against Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium.

Two goals from the striker inside six first-half minutes proved enough for the Coca-Cola League One team to eliminate their Barclays Premier League opponents — Bolton scored in the closing stages through Kevin Nolan — with Akinfenwa ignoring his battered and bruised body to eliminate Gary Megson’s team.

“Bayo really bullied Bolton’s defenders and I’m proud of his performance because he has had his injury problems with us,” Gray said. “We had to get a steel plate taken out of his leg in the summer and he played against Bolton with 12 stitches in a head wound. The wound burst open again at the weekend, but we just patched him up and put him out there.”

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Bolton surged forward in search of an early goal, but despite good efforts by Dan Shittu, who volleyed against the post, and Riga Mustapha, they could not find a way past Mark Bunn, the Northampton goalkeeper, and paid a heavy price when Graham Laws, the referee, awarded Northampton a penalty in the 22nd minute.

Gavin McCann, the midfield player, clumsily handled Danny Jackman’s cross, leaving Laws little option but to point to the spot, Akinfenwa displaying composure and confidence to send Jussi Jaaskelainen the wrong way.

Akinfenwa, wearing a head bandage to protect the stitches in a gash suffered on the opening day of the season, scored again when he headed Abdul Osman’s cross past Jaaskelainen from six yards and, just when Megson believed that things could not get any worse, his team were reduced to ten men after 38 minutes when Gary Cahill, the captain, was sent off for a dangerous challenge on Giles Coke. Bolton struggled to test Northampton in the second half. “It’s obviously a disappointing result, but I’m particularly disappointed with the performance of one or two of my players,” Megson said.

Bolton Wanderers (4-4-2): J Jaaskelainen – G Steinsson, G Cahill, D Shittu, J Samuel – J O’Brien, F Muamba (sub: K Nolan, 64min), G McCann (sub: A O’Brien, 40), R Gardner – R Mustapha (sub: K Davies, 64), H Helguson. Substitutes not used: A Al Habsi, N Hunt, B Dzemaili, J Fojut. Sent off: Cahill.

Northampton Town (4-1-4-1): M Bunn – M Little, M Hughes, C Doig, D Jackman – J Crowe – R Gilligan (sub: L Dolman, 71), A Osman, G Coke (sub: G Taylor, 90), A Holt – A Akinfenwa (sub: I Henderson, 75). Substitutes not used: C Dunn, L Davis, A Dyer, L Guttridge.

Referee: G Laws.

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