Mark Hughes admitted Peter Crouch had given him plenty to think about by scoring a hat trick in Stoke City's 4-0 EFL Cup win over Stevenage.
Crouch, who made only four league starts last term and was making his first appearance of this season, rolled back the years as Stoke outclassed their League Two hosts.
After the 6-foot-7 striker opened the scoring, Phil Bardsley doubled the advantage by half-time.
Crouch added two more after the break to score his first hat trick since August 2010, when he netted three times for Tottenham in a Champions League qualifier against Swiss side Young Boys.
Hughes said: "He [Crouch] always gives me something to think about.
"I thought he was excellent, he led the line well and I knew he would try and make something of the quality into him.
"I thought he was excellent on the night along with many others. Our attitude towards what we had to do was spot on and that's how it has to be.
"It's difficult when you come away from home early in the competition and we haven't had too many games under our belt, but it was important that we did it in the correct manner, which we did.
"We knew they would go quite direct and we had to be ready for that and I thought we were excellent.
"The back four were really in control of whatever they threw at us and in the end our extra quality really took the game away from them.''
Stevenage manager Darren Sarll conceded his team had been no match for Stoke's Premier League class.
He said: "In any cup tie, giant-killing, in any underdog story we have to be at our absolute best.
"There has to be 14 outstanding performances and they have to be below par, there's a reason why they play at the elite level of world football.
"It's not just their technical ability, it's the elitism of their physical performance.
"You're buying an elite athlete as well, it was a tough evening but the young players who did so well at Ipswich in round one deserved another go at it.
"If they do it right, it's very difficult and Mark [Hughes] showed us terrific respect, bringing his full-strength side.
"There were some very good players on show and Mark was probably trying to right some wrongs from the weekend and get a win under their belt ahead of their next game.''
And though Crouch was the star of the show, Sarll felt Bardsley's stunning second goal summed up the gap in class.
He added: "When Bardsley cuts in, as a full-back from 26 or 27 yards and hits a left-footed strike past what I think is a Championship goalkeeper in Jamie Jones, and sticks it in the top corner, it makes it very hard to stop.''