Richie Wellens says Leyton Orient ‘exceptional’ during win over Cambridge

Richie Wellens praised his “exceptional” players after Leyton Orient earned a 2-0 home win against Cambridge.

The visitors started the game at the top of League One but were swept aside by their hosts and seldom given an opportunity to showcase their best form.

Seeking their first win of the season since returning to the third tier, Orient were given a confidence booster when 19-year-old Watford loanee Shaq Forde gave them a first-half lead.

Theo Archibald doubled the advantage after the interval to earn Orient a dominant and convincing victory, whilst The U’s dropped down to ninth.

“The players have taken on a lot of information this week and were exceptional this afternoon,” Wellens said.

“We’ve had people that haven’t been up to speed and when you sign players later on like we have, they need more time so we took a couple out.

“It’s my job to make difficult decisions and I thought with Michael Morrison, who I played with – no disrespect because he’s a brilliant player – but we knew against him and (Ryan) Bennett, we should go with speed against them and it worked.

“I am really pleased for Shaq Forde. I watched him all week and I love working with young players who are athletic, exuberant and want to do well.

“He trained well all week and every time he finished the ball in training it flew into the net. I just thought we can’t leave him out.

“Theo Archibald was excellent again and deserved his goal. We’ve asked him to play at wing-back, which isn’t ideal for him or me, but his application has earned him that goal.”

Cambridge boss Mark Bonner had no complaints about the outcome.

“We weren’t very good and they were excellent causing us problems all afternoon,” he admitted.

“It’s not a wake-up call because we don’t think we’re the best team in the league so it’s a wake-up call for others and not us.

“The goals we conceded were very poor and when the second went in we looked like a team that couldn’t wait to finish the game.

“The last five minutes we had a great chance and if we score it might be the Alamo, if we score, but we didn’t take it and didn’t deserve it and they were much better than us so deserved the points.

“It’s back to work again for us because that was a long way short of where we have been in the opening games of the season.

“First half we were okay but they played the perfect game, outrun us and we turned the ball over far too quickly so we never had any control of the game.”