Ben Garner rues set-piece defending as Swindon suffer Leyton Orient loss

Posted Tuesday, April 19, 2022 by PA

Ben Garner felt Swindon had enough chances to beat 10-man Leyton Orient but admitted their lacklustre defending at set-pieces let the visitors off the hook in Monday’s 2-1 League Two defeat.

Omar Beckles scored either side of the break, while Hector Kyprianou hampered Orient’s bright start as he was shown a second yellow card midway through the first half.

Josh Davison netted a late consolation but the away side held on for maximum points, and Garner said: “Shots and chances, there was enough there to win the game.

“I think it’s more the other end of the pitch and the mistakes from set-pieces that have cost us.

“It’s a poor first goal, and then the second one – you just can’t do that. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb, and it changed the whole outlook of the game.

“We get back to 2-1 and we get some momentum, we have chances and we had a penalty on Ellis Iandolo which makes it 2-2 and then we had a chance to push on.

“But I’ve got to be honest, we got what we deserved because of the mistakes we made from set-pieces. You can’t do that, and that’s cost us the points.

“An incredible amount of detail goes into (set-pieces) and the players are prepared. We’ve been blocked by a couple, but one or two are soft blocks.”

Davison’s goal was his second in two games but it was too little too late for the Robins as Orient secured three points on the road.

Orient boss Richie Wellens said: “We dug deep. There was heart desire and determination.

“All of those words are easy to say and so difficult to do. I think over the Easter weekend, I’ve seen a good mix of what we can do.

“We played free-flowing football against Scunthorpe and then we come here and had to dig deep. I think we started the game really well.

“I think if you want to get a sending off, you don’t want it on Easter weekend with games so close. And I know you don’t want to be against a team that can control the ball so much.

“Before it was when it was 11 v 11 they didn’t cause any threat at all and then – when we went to 10 – I don’t think they caused a threat in terms of actually making chances.

“We’ve done all that we have to do.”