Barrow staged a fighting comeback at Bolton but were eventually beaten 3-2 in the Papa John’s Trophy.
They had gone 2-0 down, pulled one back before the interval and were level soon after the restart.
But it was Bolton who grabbed a third goal and do enough after that to make progress.
Barrow had started positively and a glorious ball from Ben Whitfield into the Bolton area looked threatening but defender Ricardo Almeida Santos got there to clear.
Then an interception by Sam Foley gave Barrow a great chance on the break and it took some excellent defending from Almeida Santos to snuff out the threat.
Josh Kay was the next to make inroads into the Bolton defence but again the hosts had enough back to cut out the cross.
It was rather against the run of play when Bolton took the lead on 23 minutes. Barrow were undone by a long ball from MJ Williams which sneaked all the way through to Dapo Afoloyan who steered his shot past Paul Farman.
George Ray did well to get on the end of a Whitfield cross but his header flew harmlessly over the bar.
Although Farman made a fine save on 37 minutes he was beaten a minute later as Bolton doubled their lead.
New dad Kieran Sadlier had another reason to celebrate with an assist as his low ball across goal was tapped in by Jan Dadi Bodvarsson.
But on 42 minutes the Bluebirds were level. A shot from Whitfield was spilled by ex-Barrow keeper Joel Dixon and Kay profited by thumping home the loose ball.
Barrow really went for it at the start of the second half and were rewarded with an equaliser.
It came on 56 minutes when Niall Canavan got on the end of a Josh Gordon flick-on to power home a header past Dixon.
A total of 585 Bluebirds fans had made the trip – almost a quarter of the 2,381 crowd.
It was a good spell for Barrow who seemed to have the momentum but it was Bolton who regained the lead after 69 minutes.
A shot from Afolayan came back off the post and there was Elias Kachunga to dive in the third Bolton goal.
Dixon denied his old team minutes later when he made an incredible close range save to keep out a rocket from Josh Gordon.
A minute later Barrow had a big shout for a penalty, a suspected handball in the box but referee Rebecca Welch waved play on.
At the other end Bolton got the ball in the net but the flag was raised for offside.
In a rousing finish, with six minutes added on, Barrow pushed forward in numbers and on one occasion Dixon just got to a through ball before Gordon.
But Bolton held on and Barrow’s Papa John’s Trophy adventure is over for another year.
