Mark Hughes has said that he will be taking tonight's League Cup tie at Brighton seriously but he will be looking to give some of the squad with limited playing time a game.

Mark Hughes has hinted that he might make a change of two for the trip to the Amex Stadium this evening, speaking ahead of the game he said.

“We’ll go there strong and we’re looking forward to it. We’ve got a lot of guys that are itching to get their season started so we’ll look to get a number of them involved,”

“It’s a competition we want to do well in. It will enable us to keep everybody at the right level. If we can get a good cup run, we can use that to good effect."

“I don’t think it’s ever a distraction. People suggest it is sometimes but not for me, I think they can sustain and enhance your Premier League form if you can get through difficult rounds against good opposition.”

Four players who have yet to start in the Premier League so far this season are goalkeeper Angus Gunn, defenders Jan Bednarek and Maya Yoshida and forward Manolo Gabbiadini and it could be that at least two them start perhaps even all four.

Perhaps the most interesting inclusion would be Angus Gunn, Saints have paid big money for the keeper and the feeling is that they haven't done that for no good reason and that they see Gunn taking hold of the first choice goalkeeping jersey sooner than later.

Certainly they will want to take a good look at him in competitive action and this would be an ideal opportunity.

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highfield49 added 09:22 - Aug 28 Could be a good time to play Brighton who seem to have injury problems, particularly in central defence. A win is a win and even if we beat a weakened team it will be a positive step. As much as I'd like to see Targett, Gallagher, Davis and others playing I think Hughes has to go with Ings and Gabbi initially and drop Hoedt for either Yoshi or Bednarek. Gunn will almost certainly play but other than that it's time for several players to get stuck in and show that they are worth being first choice picks. The exception being Austin who seems to be exhausted by his efforts so far and could do with a lengthy holiday.

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