Richie Wellens hails Orient matchwinner Ethan Galbraith

Posted Sunday, September 22, 2024 by PA

Richie Wellens was full of praise for Ethan Galbraith after his two goals set Leyton Orient on their way to a 4-1 thumping of Stockport.

Previously-unbeaten County were behind 2-0 at the break, thanks to Galbraith’s brace in the space of five minutes.

And, after Dan Agyei and Sean Clare completed their convincing win, Wellens hailed his midfielder’s contribution.

“We know how good Ethan is, he can play wherever he wants, he’s got the ability,” said Wellens.

“When he’s at this level, he has to do two or three things. He has to win promotion with us to get to the next level or he has to get goals and assists.

“When you watch him, you think ‘he’s a player’, but when you start getting numbers too people get onto that. Then someone will come in for him. I’m not trying to sell him here but he’s unbelievable.

“He is an unbelievable talent – energy, sharpness, touch, control, skill. And if he can start adding goals to his game, like I said, he can play anywhere.

“I don’t think it was a special performance today. We played some good stuff today, but we played better football against Bolton and against Birmingham.

“First and foremost we’re coming to a tough team here. Our preparation for this game was really, really good and then they changed the system.

“The players had to take a little bit of information in during the first half and I thought we handled it really well because these have not changed shape for a long time. So the fact that they changed shape, I think, is a compliment.”

After tasting defeat in the league for the first time this season, Stockport boss Dave Challinor admitted it’s something he will never get used to.

County had pegged their visitors back to 2-1 through Jack Diamond before their hopes of salvaging something were dashed by the O’s hitting their third just before the hour mark.

Challinor challenged his players to show character on the training ground when they get back to business.

“I hate losing,” he said. “I’ve said, at some point you have to get used to it.

“Maybe I’ll never get used to it, but you have to accept that that happens, I accept that happens. But for me next week can’t come quick enough. Monday can’t come quick enough. The players’ reactions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will tell me everything I need to know about them.

“If there was anyone thinking ‘we’ve cracked it and what a brilliant team we are’ then today says, we’re not quite that brilliant.

“No one will be getting carried away. In terms of motivation for me, will I be grumpy? Of course, I’ll be grumpy because I don’t like losing. But I’ll be massively motivated to make sure that next week we do everything we can to be better.

“What you can’t do is come out of that early period two goals behind, because then you’re chasing the game and you could leave yourself exposed. Once we got to grips with the game, I thought we were a little bit better.

“I thought we started the second half really, really well. And then of course we shot ourselves in the foot. From Leyton Orient’s perspective they’ll be happy with the goals but from our perspective they’re shocking.”