Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth was glad to see his team stick to the script as they brushed aside the youngsters from Fulham on Tuesday night.
Ainsworth started a handful of senior players to fulfil the competition’s selection regulations, before swapping them for more of the club’s emerging talent in the second half, ending the game with an outfield side whose average age was less than 20.
Manager Gareth Ainsworth Picture: Barry Goodwin
Marcus Wyllie, at 26, was the most senior outfield player playing for the Gills by the end the match.
The Gills won the Vertu Trophy group stage match 4-1. Logan Dobbs, Cruz Beszant and Stan Sargent all scored their first goals for the club while fellow teenagers Harry Webster, Watford loanee Travis Akomeah and Louie Dayal all featured.
Ainsworth was delighted that he got plenty out of the match.
He said: “This cup competition is almost put on for the development of Premier League youngsters, it looks like that, and category one youngsters.
“It is what it is, so we go, ‘Okay, we'll develop our youngsters as well in there.’ I need to see my youngsters ready to play in my team that plays in League 2, that plays a certain way, that plays against a certain team. That's hard when Fulham under-21s come to town.
“It's a very different game to a League 2 game, but they were brilliant in sticking to the task that I set them.
“We changed them at half-time a tiny bit. Fulham were going to come and keep possession.”
Report: Gillingham 4 Fulham u-21s 1
Fulham had around 70% possession on the night but Gills keeper Jake Turner didn’t make a save. They had a penalty that was put wide and got their goal with virtually the last kick.
Ainsworth said: “Some of those young boys are wonderful on the ball, they're brilliant at movement, their technique on the ball, and it's great, and they keep it really well but sometimes they don't hurt you with that.
“They can do sometimes, and they've scored, but I was all about respecting that they're going to keep the ball well, but when we get our chance, ‘go and hurt them, go and make sure we get some end product’ and I think we could have been more emphatic.
“We had a couple of very good saves from their keeper.
“Obviously they've missed a penalty, but it was really good to see my boys buy into what will win games in League 2 against the team that comes from the Premier League.
“We could easily get sucked into a total football game but in the lower leagues you have to find different ways to win games, there's various different ways, and I'm really proud of my boys to adapt.
“Even at 4-0, we're still going, ‘Right, let's do the right things’ to win a game and that's brilliant to see, because some of these youngsters will play in my first team, whether it's soon or whether it's eventually.”
It was a great night to showcase the young talent at Gillingham.
“We had some real magic moments,” said the manager.
“A couple of the young boys came and said, ‘Thanks Gaffer, and I'm like, ‘You're in, you're doing this for yourself’, and at the end of the game, I think, probably barring Marcus Wyllie, everyone (outfield) was 23 and under in our team.
“I'm really, really pleased that a young side has turned over a very good Fulham under-21 side.”
On a great night for Gills’ youngsters, Ainsworth was keen to praise those who helped make it happen.
He said: “The manager always gets a lot of praise, Joe Dunne (the youth manager) and Bryan Bull, the academy manager and the scouts who brought these players in, they were very proud men.
“They're looking at their boys who they coach every day, who they brought through, and even Joe Gbode getting sold (on Monday), a proud moment for us, because these are our own players, our own crop coming through and either going on to bigger things or playing in first team games .
“It's a group effort. We took it seriously, we didn't want to just go, ‘Oh, they’re Fulham under-21s, let's just put anyone out, we did a properly.
“We had a meeting about what I wanted, made tweaks at half-time, and I think got the right result.
“They were outstanding with some real good individual performances.”