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Stoke advanced into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup with a narrow win over League One Gillingham.

Tyrese Campbell scored the decisive goal, placing a low effort into the bottom left corner after latching on to Jordan Thompson's superb pass.

The hosts more than merited their win, dominating from start to finish as Northern Ireland midfielder Thompson pulled the strings.

Stoke travel to Bristol City or Aston Villa in the fourth round.

All ties are due to take place in the week commencing 28 September.

With Jack Butland again absent for Stoke, manager Michael O'Neill named nine of the team that started their second-round win at Wolves.

And it proved to be a comfortable evening for the Potters, who on another occasion may have scored more.

Defender Harry Souttar had a close-range effort brilliantly saved by the Gills' 18-year-old goalkeeper Joe Walsh prior to Campbell's goal.

Josh Tymon's blistering shot from the edge of the box hit the underside of the Gillingham bar and Jacob Brown had a late effort ruled out.

Stoke manager Michael O'Neill: "We dominated the game from start to finish, that's a very pleasing performance.

"A lot of our play was excellent, but we need to be better in the final third. My ears are bleeding after that [match] though their bench were screaming for everything.

"But we dominated the game and clearly deserved to win it. It's early in the season, but tonight was a positive for a lot of the players. It was great ball from Jordan Thompson to pick Tyrese [Campbell] out. He is at his best in that situation and showed a cool head."

Gillingham manager Steve Evans: "We did really well in the first half in terms of organisation and shape, especially as we came here with limited resources.

"It was hard for us, but we showed real discipline. However, we gave a poor goal away. We had to stay in the cup tie for 75-80 minutes, but we just never made that cutting edge chance.

"We said we're going to go young this season and supporters have said they're heard that before from managers.

"But we're going young with quality. You look at that back four tonight and see our quality. They're kids, it's like a kindergarten when I walk into the changing room."