Richie Wellens relieved after Leyton Orient made to scrap for Shrewsbury win

Posted Sunday, September 24, 2023 by PA

Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens acknowledged his side were made to battle hard before emerging with a 1-0 home win over Shrewsbury.

Orient recorded their third league win of the season to leapfrog their opponents and move into 15th place in League One thanks to a fourth goal of the season from striker Ruel Sotiriou.

The visitors had made the early running with O’s goalkeeper Sol Brynn producing an outstanding save to deny Max Mata.

But Sotiriou broke the deadlock after 20 minutes with a powerful strike into the roof of the net that was to prove the defining moment of the match.

Wellens said: “There has been times this year when we have been really good and things haven’t gone our way but today we had to really fight and scrap for that win.

“At the end of the game, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“We have to give Shrewsbury some credit because whilst we started on the back foot, they started really, really well.

“Maybe a draw was a fair result or maybe we could have taken the chances at the end but we could have been 2-0 down.

“We had a bit of luck with the goal but credit to Ruel Sotiriou because he was in the right place at the right time. We were nowhere near as smooth or as cohesive as we wanted to be.

“But we had a good save from our goalkeeper which is what he’s there for and we won a lot of the first contacts and second balls.

“Overall, it’s a good win.”

Shrews manager Matt Taylor admitted his side’s profligacy in front of goal proved costly.

He said: “It’s very frustrating to go home empty-handed to be polite about it.

“What I think we did was to dominate a game of football where we created some very good opportunities which we have to take.

“We didn’t and when you do that you run the risk but we didn’t take our chances. If you look at the first 20 minutes in isolation, we should score three goals and I think they were big chances.

“The opposition got lucky for their goal with a bounce which went through and they score with the only shot on target they created but that’s the way it’s going for us at the moment.

“I can’t knock the performance overall, though. I don’t have anything negative to say about that. We were excellent to a man.

“Our application and our commitment was there but we can’t go away and create the chances we did and not take them.”