Gillingham manager Justin Edinburgh believes Wednesday’s cup defeat was an eye-opener for his players.

The Gills lost the EFL Cup third round match at Tottenham 5-0 after being outplayed by the Premier League side.

Edinburgh said: “I am sure the players will be better for the experience, even though it was a tough one.

“They will realise what it will take to be a top player to get anywhere near that. It has given us a real good insight into what it takes to get to the top level.

“We have some good players, at our level, but if they are to aspire and think they can get to the next, or even the Premier League, it’s a long way off.”

Edinburgh was returning to his former club but it turned out to be a disappointing evening for the Gills boss.

He said: “We wanted to try and make an impact and cause an upset and to go away thinking we had done ourselves justice but we probably don’t think we did that.

“Before the game I enjoyed the experience but then when it went to three, four and five I didn’t.

“We could have done better for the goals but we are talking about top international players so we can’t be too critical but disappointed.

“We will reflect and analyse but be realistic in that we are probably not going to come up against a team as good as we have. It was a gap too far.”