Shock defeat leaves Robins with plenty to think about

STOKE City can quickly turn their focus back to the Championship then. A two-round Carabao Cup burst has given new signings, youth graduates, fit again or fringe men a chance to get some minutes in their legs but the sooner it is forgotten the better.

- Peter Smith

And that will be no problem if the Potters can anything like keep up the form they have shown so far in the league.

Mark Robins made 10 changes for a home clash with Bradford City and saw his side lose 3-0. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium.

HOW TO GET PLAYERS UP TO SPEED?

This was a welcome chance to give a debut to summer signing Maksym Talovierov, whose introduction had been stalled by a niggling hamstring injury. Everyone had seen his potential in the second half of last season at Plymouth but he missed pretty much all of preseason.

Ashley Phillips only got a few minutes with Tottenham's under-21s too, Jamie Donley was used by Spurs at left-back. Ben Gibson and Sam Gallagher spent most of preseason in recovery, as did Jaden Mears.

Robert Bozenik was still technically on the books of Boavista, whose crisis puts even Sheffield Wednesday in the shade, so spent some time working at his old club in Slovakia. Perhaps none of that is particularly out of the ordinary for a squad being put together on a budget in the Championship in the era of financial fair play.

But this era is also of nine first team substitutes, Premier League 2 for under-21s teams and a loan system that only allows players to move from window to window.