Richie Wellens felt Leyton Orient should have beaten Peterborough

Posted Wednesday, September 25, 2024 by PA

Richie Wellens could not hide his disappointment after watching his Leyton Orient side draw 2-2 with Peterborough at Brisbane Road.

The result gave Orient their first home league point of the season at the third attempt while Posh missed out on a third consecutive away league win.

The visitors recovered after going behind to a stunning strike by full-back Tom James to take an interval lead through Kwame Poku and a Malik Mothersille penalty before Charlie Kelman levelled early in the second period.

“It’s a game we should have won,” Wellens said.

“We had a whacky five minutes against a team which in terms of counter-attack are a level above this league but you could feel it coming in the three or four minutes before they scored.

“The goal we conceded from a throw-in was a joke. When the ball is going into the box, you should always be the right side of your man and your job as a midfielder is not let them counter and we let people run past us.

“I’d have imagined their team talk would have been a lot different if it wasn’t for those two goals so credit to them but overall from our perspective I’m disappointed we didn’t get three points.

“The games don’t get easier after this game but we’ve played some big clubs already and when I look at us, I feel we’re a work in progress and a good team but we want to be a big club in this league.”

Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson was satisfied with the point.

“I thought we were fortunate,” he said.

“The home team were the better team but I suppose if you are not anywhere near your best both on and off the ball, to get something out of it is probably a good point really.

“I just felt that the opposition were more aggressive than us all over the pitch, second balls, individual duels. We didn’t pass the ball quick enough. Both on and off the ball, I thought we were poor.

“We are a team that wants to play forward and our midfield are not doing that, I know it and they know it.

“A good example was Donay (O’Brien-Brady) when he came on, he got it and passed forward and broke the lines. That’s what I want the midfield players to do. You can see that when we play forward, we’ve got too much pace for teams.

“We played far too many back passes. We went in front fortunately at half-time and we needed to control the game better and be more aggressive but we lost a goal within six or seven minutes of the second half and that gets the place going again.”