Luton Town 3 Gillingham 2: Jayden Clarke and Tom Nichols on target in Carabao Cup Second Round match at Kenilworth Road

Gillingham threatened a second-half comeback against Luton Town in the Carabao Cup after appearing to be dead and buried after the first 45 minutes.

There was to be no fairytale at Kenilworth Road but the Gills made Luton worried when Jayden Clarke pulled a goal back following Jacob Brown’s early opener and Alfie Doughty’s 30-yard stunner for the Premier League side. Cauley Woodrow’s third for The Hatters calmed home nerves for a while before Tom Nichols made it 3-2 with an 88th minute header.

Manager Neil Harris made six changes to his side from the weekend league defeat against Colchester United. Nothing was expected of his team in this game and so he chose to mix things up, giving opportunities to others.

Goalkeeper Glenn Morris was among those to start, along with Conor Masterson - his first of the season - Max Clark, Robbie McKenzie, Clarke and Macauley Bonne. It was a five-man defence for the Gills against their top-flight opponents.

This was the first home game of the season for Luton, delaying their start at Kenilworth Road for as long as possible to allow for the modernisation of their ground to meet Premier League standards.

The Hatters were back in the big time but Rob Edwards’ side had endured a tough start, losing to Brighton (4-1) and Chelsea (3-0) in the opening weeks. They made eight changes to the side who lost at Stamford Bridge.

Gillingham were looking to quickly forget their own weekend loss, a winning run ending with a 3-0 home defeat to Colchester United.

The home side took less than two minutes to get infront.

Alfie Doughty had a shot blocked before Luton made their early dominance count. Luke Berry played the ball to Brown and he fired beyond Morris’ reach into the bottom corner.

Brown put another