Richie Wellens not fretting after Leyton Orient suffer first defeat of season

Posted Sunday, October 02, 2022 by PA

Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens insisted he was not too downbeat after his side’s first loss of the season, a 2-1 home defeat to Newport.

The O’s retained top spot in League Two, although that advantage has now been cut to two points after the Londoners lost their 100 per cent home record.

Will Evans and a penalty by Omar Bogle, who recorded his sixth goal of the campaign, put The Exiles in command before Orient reduced the deficit through Aaron Drinan.

“Twenty shots at home and the majority of possession,” Wellens reflected.

“We will win more games than we will lose by playing like we did today. Play like that for seventeen more home games and we will be okay.

“In terms of our performance we should have won the game easy. We had chances to score and win but we gave them a massive leg up with the two-goal advantage.

“The first goal we should have defended better on the far side by getting to the ball quicker and the penalty we messed about too much so it’s a good wake up call for us.

“Eleven games, one defeat. We need to reset and go again. We don’t want to talk about the referee.

“They had a few players rolling around. I am okay with that and that’s part of the game but five minutes additional time showed it was not our day.”

Newport had picked up just one point from their last four matches and manager James Rowberry admitted his relief with the victory.

“Any win in this division is a really big win for us and particularly at this moment in time with the start that we have had,” he said.

“We needed it today and it’s been a good week in training where today I felt we executed the game plan perfectly.

“The set play goal we conceded was disappointing but we can improve that.

“But I am just delighted for the lads and the fans that have travelled today, 243 of them have travelled with the current challenging travel conditions with no trains so it’s a massive positive for them to get a good show.

“It can be seen as a big scalp beating Orient based on how they have started but I said to the lads in the changing rooms we have been guilty before when we won the four on the spin that maybe we got comfortable so I want to avoid that happening again.

“I have told the players to enjoy this win and I know they will but they can’t exactly go out and have a few beers because they all have an important game on Tuesday.”