Gareth Ainsworth was impressed with the manner of which Gillingham scored their four goals as they beat Brighton & Hove Albion Under-21s in the Jersey Mike's Trophy on Tuesday night.
Ainsworth praised his side for their first-half efforts, as Tom Eaves, Bradley Dack and Ethan Coleman got on the scoresheet. Louie Dayal added a fourth soon after the break, but Brighton remained competitive throughout. The Gills boss complimented their efforts and the quality of a couple of the visitors' goals.
Eaves, Dack, Coleman and Sheldon Kendall played the majority of the fixture, and Ainsworth understands how big that will be for the team as the season progresses.
The victory means that Gillingham will go into the final group fixture against Northampton Town with a chance of progressing to the next round. The 53-year-old knows that there are plenty of incentives in making it to the knockout stages.
Summary of the game...
We have to hold our hands up to Brighton and say well done, as they got themselves back into the game. We needed the four goals that we scored.
In the first-half, I thought that we were pretty dominant. I thought that we created a lot of chances, and it goes to show that you need all your chances. You need to stick them in when they come. The positives for me are that we scored some great goals from close range, which would work and are very League Two-ish.
The goals that we conceded were worldies. There were a couple in there that you thought, wow, they are unbelievable goals. There are some kids out in the Brighton team with big futures ahead of them, but there were no tap-ins or anything flashing across our goal that we felt in danger with. That's more League Two-ish, so that is what we are working on and that is what I was pleased to see today.
All in all, a win is a win. There were seven goals, some nice names on the score sheet... We are pleased with where we are. There were no injuries, which is the big one.
Getting minutes into the legs...
There were some good performances from boys who haven't had the minutes. Tom Eaves, I believe that was his 100th Gills appearance, which is great to cap with a goal, and 70 minutes was his limit. Bradley Dack was down for 90, but just tightened up in his groin, so we have taken him off. Sheldon Kendall doing 90, and Ethan Coleman got 90. These people are going into minutes that they haven't gone into yet, which is really good for me. To see some of the boys pushing that clock is really good to see. It gives me headaches.
Incentives of progressing to the knockout stages...
The benefits are that we have a big squad now, and that for one reason or another, I have had to sign a few more players because of injuries and a couple of players picking up too many knocks.
These players are going to need games. I can't just be taking my 18, and then there are 14 that aren't playing. Having games and being in this competition is going to be really important because we got to the semi-final once at Wycombe and almost made the final.
I think that once you get to the knockout stages you look at how many games until you do get somewhere.
