Clayton Donaldson and Joel Grant scored hat-tricks as Crewe thumped Cheltenham.

Donaldson and Shaun Miller scored early on for the home side, before Donaldson notched again and Grant scored to make it 4-0 at the break.

Wesley Thomas pulled one back for the visitors, before Ashley R Westwood scored Crewe's fifth.

Donaldson completed his hat-trick with a penalty, before Grant fired in and later tucked home a penalty to secure a hat-trick of his own.

Crewe boss Dario Gradi missed the game, having gone home feeling ill prior to kick-off. But, with assistant manager Steve Davis at the helm, it did not hold the Alex back.

Former Hibernian striker Donaldson started the rout early on when he picked up Miller's through ball to slot in.

Miller himself then doubled the lead when he tapped in a Danny Shelley pass.

Donaldson turned in a Shelley cross for his second of the game and Grant made it four before half-time, after collecting goalkeeper Rhys Taylor's long ball and slotting home.

Thomas had given the visitors a glimmer of hope when he finished from close range, but Westwood restored the four-goal advantage when he fired in off a Matt Tootle cross.

When Steve Elliott handled in the area, Donaldson stepped up to complete his hat-trick from the spot, before Grant tapped in to make it seven.

Grant also claimed his hat-trick with a late penalty after Andy Gallinagh had tripped Donaldson in the area.

POST-MATCH REACTION

Crewe assistant manager Steve Davis told BBC Radio Stoke:

"I'm not fooling myself by thinking that because Dario wasn't here, the result would have been any different.

"I'm going to enjoy watching the game again with Dario on Monday, but I'm sure he'll pull me to bits on a few things.

"A few things were wrong and I didn't probably deal with them, but what do you do when the team were flowing like they were?"

Cheltenham Town boss Mark Yates told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"I'm embarrassed, extremely disappointed and extremely apologetic to the supporters. It was totally unacceptable from the second minute to the 95th.

"No matter what we did and what we tried to do to change the flow of the game, we had too many people wanting to do their own thing and, as a result, we couldn't cope with their front two.

"I'm the manager and I'll turn it around. It's been disappointing since January but my budget has been cut and we've got a group of players that are naïve and young and we've got to build the club again."