There is no easy way to dress up this one, Russell Martin wanted to find out some answers and made 11 changes to his team from Friday night, perhaps it might have worked, but then he tinkered.

We expected to see changes for this game, we expected to see a lot of them, but what we got was a set of players all with differing objectives and some out of position, Russell Martin seems to have wanted to ask some questions about certain players, he certainly got the answers.

The starting line up saw three players who probably know there time is up at Saints, they know they are not comfortable playing the style of football under Russell Martin, they know they are second even third choice at present and perhaps know they aren't going to get a better offer elsewhere so are stuck.

Alex McCarthy, James Bree, Lyanco & Romain Perraud fell into this category, perhaps a little harsh on the Frenchman Perraud, but the fact is he wasn't even given a chance to shine in his normal position, he was thrown in at centre back alongside Lyanco whilst Jayden Meghoma who only turned 17 in June was given his debut at left back.

In the centre of midfield Stuart Armstrong partnered the Shea Charles who was also making his competitive debut for the club and out wide we had Amo Ameya whose only other first team game was a few minutes against Liverpool in the final game of last season and Moussa Djenepo who is very much a fringe player, up front we had Sekou Mara & Che Adams.

Some would say there was some experience out there, but truth is there were no leaders and four of those experienced player's are not comfortable with the formation.

A recipe for disaster from the start, if we are going to experiment a bit you have a strong spine, that means two central defenders who can control the game, keep things steady, what we had was a player who is a left back and only a left back and the volatile Lyanco.

But truth was for most of the first half we were in control, we passed the ball and kept possession and created chances, but when Gillingham got the ball they came at us hard and fast and drove at our spine.

The first goal should never have happened, James Bree tried to keep a ball in play when really he had noting on and just put it in the path of their player, who drove forward and crossed the ball for Nadesan to fire home after 12 minutes.

After that McCarthy was a virtual spectator for much of the half, although too often when they did get forward we didn't have a clue who was supposed to be marking who and we were lucky to see a second goal ruled out.

Half time did not see optimism in the Saints end, however there was a feeling that with a timely substitution or two we could get back in the game, but the two changes were strange, off came Stuart Armstrong for Joe Aribo and on came Kamari Doyle another youngster turning 18 a week earlier to add to his 6 minute appearance at Brighton last season.

We had taken off a striker and brought on two midfielders, we had even less experience and leadership on the pitch.

I understand Martin's reasoning on why he took both Armstrong & Mara off, but not the replacements.

The Gills caught us before we had regrouped and within 6 minutes they had doubled their lead, yet another poorly defended goal.

Alcaraz for Perraud on the hour mark looked to give us a cutting edge, but within minutes Gillingham were 3-0 up again poor defending that saw the unmarked McKenzie fire home his second.

A nice goal from Alacaraz on 89 minutes gave a glimmer of hope, but 7 minutes of injury time was never going to be enough.

So a disaster of an evening, but I don't think Russell Martin will see it that way, he will be pragmatic, we were never going to win this competition, so he wanted some questions answered and winning was not the priority, this was almost another pre season game, he wanted to see who could play his possession football game and who couldn't, he wanted to find out how the youngster performed in a competitive game .

From this perspective he got answers, most of the youngsters acquitted themselves well, but were let down by the experienced players and a back four and keeper who were atrocious.

To put in perspective we had 72% possession, we had 20 shots with 5 on target, the home side only had 5 attempts all night, 4 of them were on target and 3 went in, all of those attempts had one thing in common, they had men unmarked.

I have no gripe with the possession game, but it needs to be driven from the back, you have to have defenders who can defend and who can organise and mark, this was not the case last night.

But congratulations to Gillingham & their fans, they showed a lot of passion and took their chances when they came, I have given a lot of insight into why I thought we lost the match, but there were two teams out there and they still had to win it.

In truth as a fan i an unhappy for us to go out of the League Cup, it offers a nice run and a chance of glory, well at least whilst we were a Premier League club, but this season it is different, we were never going to win it, so it was a distraction, Russell Martin's job is to get up challenging for promotion, he doesn't need to have a 350 mile round trip to say Mansfield to get in the way.

I don't think the manager and his coaching staff are too disappointed about the result.

What he will be disappointed about is the manner of the defeat, he will have had a lot of questions answered about senior players, I would be surprised to see McCarthy, Perraud, Lyanco & Bree play much part this season, all have seen signings in the summer in their positions, and they know that there are more coming in, this was last chance saloon for them and their body language told you that, Lyanco gave 100%, no one can accuse him otherwise, but he knows his days are numbered.

So do I think this game is any pointed to how we will do in the Championship going forward, the answer is no, so I am not going to spend too much time worrying about it, none of the starting line up in this game were in the starting line up at Sheffield Wednesday and for that matter, perhaps Che Adams aside will start against Norwich City.

So there is no point as seeing this as anything other than a training game, I have made several points about Russell Martin's starting line up, I don't think this was a blunder by the manager, he knew exactly what he was doing, he wasn't bothered about this result, he is more bothered about Saturday.

Of the 16 players who played in this match, perhaps 6 have any chance of getting on the pitch on Saturday and as I said perhaps only Adams in the starting line up.

So the focus is on Saturday now, all that matters is the next game and not the last, for Russell Martin, Norwich was always the focus, if Saints are promoted no one will remember or care about a cold windswept night in Kent.

Photo: Action Images

DPeps added 10:17 - Aug 9 In a press conference over the summer RM said that there would be bad days as well as good days ahead. Clearly the possession based approach only works if everyone understands their role and multiple players are showing for the ball when we're in possession. RM is somewhat culpable as it was kamikaze to go for an entirety different 11, but at the same time this was against L2 opposition and the players should be able to adapt. I'm of the view that we're better off out of the cup given how demanding the league is, but this result is embarrassing

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Boris1977 added 11:00 - Aug 9 Last night saw a combination of all 3 of the last managerial appointments in one. Arrogance, obscure selection of first 11, inappropriate substitutions and chucking players under the bus of the players the manager selected in the first place. But be clear my comments below are not just about last nights game. This is yet another embarrassing day in Saints recent history which was, again, entirely avoidable and self-inflicted. Nick, I have to disagree with you that both this game and Friday's are a clear indication of what the rest of the season holds for us as things stand. Our defence is still inadequate, particularly in the middle, regardless of who plays. Gillingham scored with their first 3 shots on target. Sheff Wed's with their first on target. This has been an issue for the past three seasons and Sports Republic are seemingly not interested in addressing it. Perraud was one of the few decent players last season and he has been frozen out (or injured) and this celtic clown has bought him back into the team as a CB. What idiocy and arrogance. If this game was so unimportant to Martin why not just pull it and take a fine? Or maybe put out a stronger team to get them used to winning games again? Or is that too simple? We lost to a 4th division team 3-1 and it could have been worse. Sports Republic should sell up to party who are interested in promoting the potential within this club rather than playing football manager on their ridiculous BS-Ball. Martin and Sort Republic have a track record of mediocrity - and that is where, if we're lucky, they are taking our beloved football club. COYR's

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kristianJ added 11:27 - Aug 9 Definitely not a great performance, although this is only RM’s second competitive game as manager, so I am not sure it’s quite time for sack the gaffer remarks that are currently appearing in other forums! I thought both Bree and Onuachu, when he came on, were awful and it’s difficult to understand why the latter was brought on ahead of Ballard. On the plus side I thought S Armstrong played well in the first half and credit should be given to Sam A-A, who looked a threat and kept going to the end, and Doyle, who looked decent in the 2nd half. RM definitely deserves some criticism for playing Perraud as a CB, which was never likely to work, and Mara as a AM. I think we might be better off dispensing with both Mara and Che and bringing in Piroe.

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AgrellaSFC added 11:37 - Aug 9 Just been reading that Smallbone is somewhat desperate for a move with Sheffield United wanting him in the premier league. Losing him as well as Prowse leaves us with an open midfield ahead of a non existent back line. I don't mind leaving this cup as we already have a bigger objective in promotion. But that game has highlighted that we urgently need reinforcements in the backline. Too soon to slate RM in my opinion so I'll be heading to our first home game hoping we score at least 3 or 4 as we know we're conceding a goal no matter what. UTS

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saintmark1976 added 11:43 - Aug 9 Is it just me or has McCarthy simply thrown in the towel at even pretending to be a goalkeeper? Granted he had no chance with their first goal but the other two? Their second, he made no attempt to even try and get down to the ball as it came in front of him after the defence failed to clear. Their third, he was beaten to the wide from a shot a country mile outside the big box, simply pretending to make an effort at diving after the ball had in fact passed him. Bazunu is a poor keeper in my opinion who last season was promoted beyond his abilities but given his age could I suppose get better. McCarthy just seems to get worse as he ages. Boris1977, I entirely agree in reference to Perraud. If is fit then I can’t see any reason not to play him at left full back He can defend and score goals, skills which appear way beyond most of his team mates at this present moment.

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DPeps added 11:52 - Aug 9 Agree that it was a bad decision to play perraud as cb and to throw the youngsters under the bus. Perraud has been a model pro imo and didn't deserve that
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JoeEgg added 11:53 - Aug 9 "I don't think the manager and his coaching staff are too disappointed about the result" You must be joking Nick! To give the manager credit he has not come out and defender the players and has expressed his disappointment very clearly. We have and still have a very large squad of players and yet this overlarge squad cant provide us with solid, experienced dependable defenders or just one forward (perhaps Tella will be an exception) who can score us the goals we need. And now - as if that isn't bad eneough we are losing Ward Prowse and inevitably Romeo Lavia!! We beat Wednesday but I have a feeling they will be relegation contenders. I can see us struggling to beat Norwich at home, allbeit with a different set of players from those that disgraced the club at Gillingham. So unlike Nick, I am sure that the manager is bitterly disappointed with what he saw last night - and has every right to be! And so should we.

2

I_would added 12:05 - Aug 9 As everyone should realise by now, the SR model is, obviously, middle Championship table with minimum games and minimum wage outlay whilst blooding fabulous young prospects against average opposition to enhance their sellability. The tippy tappy possession based style of play is not going to succeed without mixing it up with swift attacks and we also need to buy some better quality, more intelligent players to give it a chance. The manager is not building any confidence in the club with his random team sheets, inability to get the players to do what their told and negative results and will fail with this present set up.

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Block8 added 12:16 - Aug 9 So it's confirmed Perraud is the new Jack Stephens is that right Nick? Stupid selections and set up, and in my opinion Perraud has been our best defender in terms of goals and assists and is also a pretty good full back. However at about 5' 6" is hardly a CB?? Lets move on and hope that somewhere along the line we will start to produce & take some chances. 72% possession and 20 shots doesn't seem like a defensive issue in reality?

2

davidargyll added 12:16 - Aug 9 Only listened to the game on talksport so not really able to comment in depth. But I got the definite impression that the Gills were playing for their lives and not giving us room to pass the ball around like SW did last week. And we weren’t. And certainly RM did not (purposely?) set up for this (obvious?) eventuality, ie let them come at us for the first half and then aim to hit them in H2. Easy to say in hindsight of course but maybe as you say he was treating this morning as a preseason game and the result was irrelevant - and of course we now have three or four less games to play in the season as a result of our early exit so I suppose there is a small silver lining… But even if it was an irrelevant cup game, it was still a wake up call as to how tough the next few months are going to be: the commentators added that they couldn’t think of a season when the Championship was more stuffed with quality teams than this one. Furthermore I wonder whether this game might have scared a few potential buyers off paying up for, if not for our stars, certainly our so-called second string…

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SaintPaulVW added 13:42 - Aug 9 Think he decided to both see what he's got with some players. I am guessing he probably knew anyway. He can now tell them where they need to get to to move above those in post. Plus with all those changes half of me suspects that he has decided to concentrate on the league which is no bad thing - 46 matches in the championship is a big ask with what will be a smaller squad.

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IanRC added 14:01 - Aug 9 Awful 24 hours, this disgrace, looks like JWP is off (doubtless will be back in Southgate's good books), Lavia likely off and SR have not even got off their backsides and offered Smallbone a good contract apparently. The warning bells are ringing. Only good news is that Crystal Palace are apparently interested in McCarthy but how much will we need to pay them ?
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SanMarco added 14:41 - Aug 9 We should always try to stay in the cups. Many might have said "who cares let's concentrate on the league" if Hugh Fisher's late equaliser hadn't gone in all those years ago in Jan '76...A win last night and who knows but we sure as feck know now. Woeful stuff last night. I am glad the club have hidden the commentary behind a pay wall so at least I only experienced it on the BBC website. RM has already used the 'blame the players card'. He picked them and he told them where to play. Did he not have other options? I am fed up with people who claim to be 'taking responsibility' and in the same breath blame others. Far, far too early to be talking about changing the manager and we really need this guy to succeed. Last week showed hopeful signs (but it seems that many of those that caused that are going/gone) but last night was rubbish.

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Block8 added 16:47 - Aug 9 By the way there is also the possibility that he totally underestimated the opposition?
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YosemiteSaint added 19:00 - Aug 9 Owls flattered us by—among many other things—giving us acres of space in which to do the tiky-taka thing. Gills showed what happens to that system when it's pressed. I share fellow fans' trepidation about the prospect of having a sieve of a midfield with an unsettled back line (which is one of the many reasons we should be kinder to Perraud, as he's a steady left back who can also provide attacking cover at midfield; without JWP and Lavia we NEED Perraud desperately). As for Martin's post-match rant about the team, let's hope it was designed to get outgoings and incomings finalized so we can get on with the season. I had fancied a League Cup run. But perhaps we're not ready for that sort of thing yet. (Hopefully by Xmas we'll be solidified near the top of the table and will have the luxury of an FA Cup run.)

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sotonwillbeback added 10:20 - Aug 12 Manning will be first choice LB no matter what, so RM must have wanted to see if Perraud has the flexibility to play as a CB. I didn't see the game but sounds like the answer to that is a no. I'm glad we found that out in a cup game instead of a league match worth 3 points. RM can now advocate for a Perraud sale, knowing he is too good to sit on the bench as backup LB, but also now knowing he can't do anything else as a player that will assist the team moving forward.

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