Gillingham assistant boss Paul Raynor was disappointed their side didn’t give Ipswich Town more of a run for their money.

The Gills management knew they were up against it, facing a team with bigger resources and better quality in reserve, but conceding two early goals left any hopes of pulling off a result in the EFL Trophy clash unlikely.

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Report: Ipswich Town 4 Gillingham 0

“I’m disappointed in a lot of the aspects of the game,” he said.

“I think you could see by the team selection that we prioritised the game at Portsmouth (in the league) on Saturday and unfortunately Ipswich’s fringe players were slightly better than ours on the night, and they should be.

“They’ve got a lot stronger squad, more depth, a lot more quality in their squad but still it’s disappointed that we didn’t acquit ourselves better.

“We don’t want to be over-critical, the guys gave everything but sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition. Ipswich played some lovely stuff but I thought the goals were a little bit soft, the goals we conceded weren’t great and we have to do better with that.

“Two-nil down early doors away from home in a game like that and they are then full of confidence and it was always going to be difficult.”

Despite the result, it gave the management team chance to see some of their younger pros in action competitively.

Goalkeeper Joe Walsh made his second appearance for the Gills and midfielder Henry Woods made his first start.

Raynor said: “We put those guys in to learn, to be part of it and they will take something out of the game. It will be negative in terms of result but going forward they will learn something from it.

“We have got every faith in Joe and he will learn from these nights, that is why we threw him in there. He has technically got all the attributes, he is very gifted, but unless you put him into these games we are never going to see how he is going to react so that is why we used him. He will learn from it.

“Henry has been on the bench for us this season, he did well for us pre-season and is one of the youngsters who came to the fore that we thought could add to the squad. He acquitted himself, he had some nice touches and it is was good for him to get his first 90.

“For those young players to play at Portman Road, against good players, it will be a massive learning experience for them.

“It will be a tough one to take in terms of the goals we conceded, but they have to take it on the chin, learn from it and come back stronger. They are good characters and I am sure they will.”

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