Joe Gallen lauds “comprehensive performance” as Leyton Orient thump Tranmere

Assistant boss Joe Gallen was full of praise for the Leyton Orient players after their 4-0 drubbing of fellow League Two side Tranmere in the FA Cup.

The convincing victory put the O’s into the third round for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

Harry Smith and Omar Beckles put the Londoners in front at the break before the rampant hosts notched two more in the second half.

Aaron Drinan scored his 11th goal of the season when he netted from the penalty spot while fellow striker Smith also reached 11 for the campaign with the fourth goal to complete the rout.

Gallen said: “To win at home and score four goals is an excellent achievement for us and something that cannot be underestimated.

“But that performance now has to lead on for Tuesday night’s game against Swindon.

“We knew we needed to play better than we did last weekend but you have to go out and do it and we did, putting on a comprehensive performance by keeping possession, switching play and that has led us to a platform of creating opportunities for us.

“We do always believe we can score goals.

“Aaron Drinan and Harry Smith are building a really good partnership up front but we need to make sure our away performances are as good as our home performances.

“We have two big home matches this week in the league against Swindon and then here again versus Crawley on Saturday so we will need to make sure we prepare well.”

Tranmere boss Micky Mellon was critical of his side.

He said: “We’ve let a lot of people down and our performance right from the very start was nowhere near what was required to try and get something out of the game.

“I thought we were really poor with the ball, we never passed it enough, we never fought hard enough to find the space to get on the ball and try to impact the game.

“So, overall, we were well beaten and that’s a tough thing for a manager to say.”

Rovers boast the joint-meanest defensive record in League Two this term but they could not contain their vibrant opponents who dictated from start to finish.

Mellon added: “We have to go over the game and find out why and I’ll have a look to see what I can do to fix it.

“All I can say at the moment is that we come back in on Monday and we work hard and prepare for another game on Tuesday.

“I’m disappointed, beyond disappointed, for the performance we’ve given, it wasn’t good enough. We just weren’t at the races at all.”