Richie Wellens hails efforts of Orient players after they go top

Posted Sunday, August 14, 2022 by PA

Orient boss Richie Wellens praised the efforts of his side as they overcame Mansfield 1-0 to move to the top of League Two.

The Londoners made it three wins out of three and they have yet to concede a league goal this season.

Ipswich midfielder Idris El Mizouni, on a season-long loan with Orient, skipped past two defenders and picked out another loanee, QPR striker Charlie Kelman who rifled a shot into the net for the decisive strike and his first Orient goal.

“We worked hard but was nowhere near our best,” Wellens reflected.

“I thought in patches we created good opportunities and I am sure if you look at it overall then you will see Mansfield had more chances than we did. They had the chance to finish those chances whereas we lacked that final pass to create that opening.

“The work ethic and the commitment of the players was excellent. We’ve got players still recovering from injuries and are nowhere near where we need them to be and we were playing against a really good team.

“We conceded too many chances from being open and gave the ball away where we needed to secure possession. But it was an important win and the three points today was achieved by our supporters who could have turned at one point because we wasn’t quite at it or fluid.

“But they stayed with us, created an atmosphere and so I would like to applaud them for helping us get the win.”

Stags manager Nigel Clough refused to be downbeat after his side’s narrow defeat.

“We deserved more today and it’s just both penalty areas which has been the difference,” he said.

“We had four one-on-ones and missed a penalty. They had a chance in the second half and put it away.

“I thought our performance was very good. You just need someone to get you a goal. Within thirty seconds we should be one-nil up from the penalty spot. If that goes in, then I think we get something out of the game, so we were very unfortunate today in lots of ways.

“I am not one of these who thinks strikers should score every time they go clear but of course if you go through on goal three times, then at least one of them should go in.

“Again you look at penalties going in and to be fair, Macca (Stephen McLaughlin) hasn’t missed many but those sorts of things have cost us today. ”

“I thought the game was open in the first 10 minutes and their width was causing us a few problems which is why we changed but we were much more solid and much more dangerous from that point on.”