Steve Evans felt his much-changed team were worthy winners and deserved to progress in the Carabao Cup after clinching a dramatic 10-9 victory on penalties at Crawley after the thrilling tie had ended 2-2.

The Gills went through when French defender Ludwig Francillette became the only player to miss from the spot and Harvey Lintott then stepped up to convert the decisive penalty.

Crawley’s Sam Ashford cancelled out an early goal from Gerald Sithole and Daniel Phillips looked to have won it in stoppage time for Gillingham before Archie Davies equalised with the last kick.

Evans felt his men gave everything after he made six changes and said: “I am immensely proud of the team – we should have won it in 90 minutes.

“We had a young team against an experienced Crawley side; they had a spell in the second half but we changed the system and deserved to win the cup tie.”

Evans was sent to the stands for protesting about a challenge by Francillette on Sithole and the manager said: “It was a shocking leg-breaking challenge.

“The challenge was horrendous and has no place in football.”

Crawley head coach John Yems was delighted with the reaction shown by his side after being critical of them in their opening league defeat at Hartlepool.

He said: “It was a big improvement on Saturday and as far as I’m concerned we won the game.

“It was a good performance from all of us. I’m sad we lost but one thing you can be guaranteed of is that we will always have a go.

“Penalties are a farce but we stood up to be counted. Everyone did well and it will give fans things to talk about.”

Yems admitted having Saturday’s league game with Harrogate postponed due to an outbreak of Covid at Town was a “blessing”.

He added: “We’ve got injuries and I am still looking to strengthen the squad.”