Richie Wellens bemoans ‘diabolical’ second half as Leyton Orient lose away

Posted Sunday, October 20, 2024 by PA

Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens slammed his side’s ‘diabolical’ second half performance after they were beaten 1-0 by Northampton at Sixfields.

Orient were the better side in the first half of the Sky Bet League One match but Daniel Agyei missed two chances before they failed to muster any kind of response to Cameron McGeehan’s goal immediately after half-time.

“I thought we were good in the first half and should have been two or three up,” said Wellens. “We missed an open goal and there’s another one where we hit the man on the line.

“But we don’t take our chances and the second half was diabolical right from kick-off. We made poor decisions, the intensity was poor, the body language was poor and the quality was poor.

“They’ve had one shot on target and how we’ve only had a couple of shots on target from some of the areas we found I don’t know.

“I think we put over 50 crosses into the box and none of our three strikers won a first contact.

“The game changes if we go 1-0 up but at the moment we are not scoring when we are on top. It became a bit shambolic at the end and I should never have to change shape.

“We went from a performance where we should have been two or three goals ahead in the first half to a performance in the second half where we were so bad that Northampton deserved to win.

“The players need to wake up and what I’ve said is no different than to what I’ve said to the players. It was diabolical in the second half and we let the fans down.

“We looked like a young, naive, inexperienced team.”

Northampton boss Jon Brady was pleased to stop the rot after three successive defeats.

He said: “It was more of a workmanlike performance from us today and we needed that. To get a clean sheet and win 1-0 is really pleasing.

“I felt we needed to change a few things. We looked at Orient and how they play because they’ve had some fantastic results – they went and beat Stockport 4-1 and they played well against Wrexham.

“They are a team full of pace, power and athleticism and they’re good on set-pieces so I needed a strong, physical side and that’s what I picked today.

“I’m really pleased with Cam. He’s got that knack for reading the play and knowing where the ball will fall and it’s testament to him that he’s top of the goalscoring charts.

“To get a clean sheet was excellent and I can’t remember them creating much, apart from an early chance. That’s testament to the whole team and their work ethic.”