RICHIE Wellens will take nothing from Tuesday night’s 3-2 Leasing.com Trophy group stage loss to Chelsea U21s, and will instead channel his entire focus on Saturday’s League Two visit of Carlisle United.

Goals from loan signings Daniel Ballard and Adam May either side of half time cancelled out the visitors’ two-goal lead established after only 15 minutes courtesy of Tino Anjorin’s early brace.

But promising youngster Charlie Brown netted the winning goal when escaping both Tom Broadbent and Ballard on the edge of the 18-yard box to bag three points for Chelsea’s bright sparks and reduce Town to an opening group game defeat.

Wellens fielded the minimum five players from Saturday’s XI that were required in Tuesday night’s squad – while surplus to requirement players Toumani Diagouraga and Jermaine McGlashan were also handed minutes.

Not deterred by the defeat, Wellens said: “It was a patched-up team, and we gave a number of players a platform to get some minutes.

“And we gave two or three the opportunity to impress the scouts watching because we want them to move on.

“Our two best players were Rob Hunt and Lloyd Isgrove, and they both played 90 minutes on Saturday.

“They showed energy, they showed willingness and they want to do the right things.

“But, defensively, we were all over the shop. Charlie Brown caused our defence a lot of problems.”

The Town boss was dealt a slight blow at half time when Ellis Iandolo was ruled out of the second half with concussion.

First-team regulars Lloyd Isgrove and Keshi Anderson meanwhile were substituted mid-way through the second half to rest ahead of Carlisle’s visit.

And it’s likely we’ll see a team identical to Town’s squad at Scunthorpe for Saturday’s game, with Wellens’ opinion on fringe players unchanged.

He added: “When you pick a team like tonight, you always run the risk of not being a great unit.

“My concern is Carlisle, hence the amount of changes we made. Ellis (Iandolo) was concussed at half-time – and I brought Isgrove and Anderson off to save their legs for Saturday.

“I don’t think any player has pushed for a spot on Saturday. We played good attacking football at Scunthorpe, but Chelsea was a different game.

“If I had the option of playing the youth team I probably would have done that.

“But we have to respect the competition, and we want to win for our supporters.”