Gillingham manager Mark Bonner had no complaints about the red card shown to midfielder Euan Williams on Tuesday night.

Williams was making his competitive debut for the Gills after signing on the eve of the new season but saw red after a foul on Swansea’s Kyle Naughton near the halfway line.

Already a goal down, Gillingham lost their Carabao Cup tie 3-1 despite a late goal from substitute Oli Hawkins giving them brief hope of taking the game to a penalty shoot-out.

“No real complaints about it,” said Bonner. “I thought at the time it was a bit reckless.

“It was low but his studs were showing, it was one-footed and you give them a chance when your studs are showing and you dive in a little bit.

“He has to learn really quickly as not only did it make it a tougher night for us but obviously that will cost him somewhere down the line in terms of game availability.”

It was a tough night for Bonner’s much-changed Gillingham side who were up against a possession-based Championship outfit, who dominated the ball and created numerous chances.

“The game was as tough as we expected it to be and it only got harder really with the sending-off,” conceded the Gills boss.

“I think we knew we were always going to play against a team that dominate the ball and therefore our defensive work had to be brilliant.

“We had to be very patient to not go chasing after them but we were a bit too respectful in the early stages of the game when we had moments to stop them, track them, put a glove on them, win the ball back and we probably didn’t do that enough.

“I thought we grew into the first half and started to play a little bit more but our periods with the ball were too sporadic really. We never had spells, one move or moment didn’t lead to a spell.

“We tried to fix one or two things at half-time, made a couple of changes and were looking forward to the impact that might have. The sending-off happened really soon and that’s probably the worst team we could have had that happen against.

“The second half was very long, the scoreboard timer was going very slowly. Somehow, we stayed in it and scored towards the end and nearly had a chance to take it to a penalty shoot-out which would have been mental.”

There was a baptism of fire for Gillingham youngster Alex Giles, who made his first start for the club at right-back after Remeao Hutton was ruled out through illness.

Bonner had plenty of sympathy for the 19-year-old.

“It's a really tough game for him against high-flying wingers,” noted Bonner.

“Remeao Hutton was playing but he was sick this morning so we sent him straight home - and Alex came in and played at right-back.

Report: Swansea 3-1 Gillingham

“He’s not played for a while because of his injury in pre-season, he’s played out of position against a top-level team so it’s as difficult a debut as he probably could have had and he’ll probably want to forget it quite quickly. But a brilliant lesson and exposure to top level for him.

“There’s lots of young players in that team that haven’t played a lot against that level of opposition so if their aspiration is to play higher than our team - and first they’ve got to get into ours - then it’s a good learning night for them.”