Gillingham 4 Brighton & Hove Albion under-21s 3: Reaction from Gills boss Gareth Ainsworth after Jersey Mike’s Trophy victory at Priestfield

Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth admitted there were lessons learned for both teams in Tuesday night’s seven-goal EFL Trophy match.

Brighton conceded the opening goal with a bizarre penalty that was completely avoidable and Ainsworth admitted his own team should have been even more ruthless.

Report: Gillingham 4 Brighton 3

From 4-0 up, the Gills conceded three as the Jersey Mike’s Trophy match ended 4-3.

Ainsworth said: “We’ve got to hold our hands up to Brighton and say, ‘Well done, you got yourselves back in the game’, and obviously we needed the four goals we scored.

“It’s probably a lesson to go: ‘When your chances are there, make sure you take them’. Even though you've got four, go and get five, go and get six. I thought we could have got five or six.

“We were pretty dominant in the first half; we were creating a lot of chances. It goes to show that you need all your chances and you need to stick them in when they come.

“The positives for me were that we scored some great goals from close range and were very League Two-ish. The goals we conceded were worldies. There was a couple in there that you think, ‘Wow, they're unbelievable goals’, and there are some kids in the Brighton team with some big futures ahead of them.

“There were no tap-ins [conceded]; there was nothing flashing across our goal that we felt in danger with, and that's more League Two-ish. That's what I'm working on, and that's what I was pleased to see.

“We sort of lost control a little bit towards the end, but I had about seven youngsters on the pitch at that time, rather than the five or six I started with.

“People look at us now and go, Louie Dayal, Michael Luxton, Sully Booth, these are first-teamers. It's great for people to look at them