The Trotters had the superior advantage throughout over their Irish counterparts, and this showed after only seven minutes when Gareth Farrelly's corner was met by unmarked defender Bruno N'Gotty who powerfully headed past the stranded United goalkeeper Dwayne Nelson.
The Premiership side could of gone further in front on 15 minutes when two efforts by Anthony Barness where kept out by the Ballymena stopper Nelson. A few minutes later the home side where on level terms.
Debutant midfielder Garth Scates picked the ball up 30-yards from the Bolton goal and fired an unstoppable shot past the Wanderers goalkeeper Kevin Poole to bring Ballymena in the game.
However this was short lived as goals from Per Frandsen and Henrik Pedersen in the remainder of the first half gave Sam Allardyce's men a 3-1 advantage going into the interval.
Frandsen had further increased the Trotters lead to 2-1 when he fired an unstoppable free kick past Nelson which was the result of a defensive mix up by the home side and on the stroke of half time Barness and Nicky Hunt combined to set up Henrik Pedersen for the third goal.
Shortly after half time on 51 minutes Delroy Facey made the scoreline 4-1 picking up a loose ball to beat the Ballymena keeper from close range. Five minutes later skipper Kevin Nolan made it 5-1 when he fired home a cross by trialist Kevin Davies to surely put the game beyond any doubt.
Wanderers brought on Jeff Smith, Jonathan Walters, Danny Livesey, Derek Niven after the hour mark and also introduced young Swedish defender Ndiwa Lord-Kangana for his Bolton debut.
Walters did his chances of a push for the first team no harm at all with two goals in the final ten minutes. On 82 minutes the former Blackburn Academy player converted a cross by Smith and with five minutes to go he hit an unstoppable drive to hit the seventh goal.
All in all a good workout for the Wanderers and particularly beneficial to the younger players such as Walters, Hunt, Lord and Facey who will have gained a lot of confidence from this victory.