A delighted Ritchie Wellens revealed that his side were trying to tire out the Imps with their patient possession this weekend.
City slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Brisbane Road, courtesy of Idris El Mizouni’s 62nd-minute header. After a frantic first six minutes where City had good chances, the home side were probably good value for the win.
Speaking to Leyton Orient’s YouTube channel, Wellens said his team had turned in a good performance.
“Good win, good intensity, really good performance. In the first half, I thought we dominated after the opening six or seven minutes. They put a few balls into the box, could have had one, hit the bar, and started the game really well. They could have taken the lead in that period.”
While he admitted we’re a hard team to play against, which is encouraging for the future, he also gave us a peek behind the curtain when it came to tactics, suggesting he was approaching the game looking to tire us out.
“They’re hard to play against. Every time the game kicks off, it’s a free kick straight into your box. Every set piece, every throw-in, they put bodies on your back line. So we didn’t start the game too well, but then we began to dominate the ball. I think we had about 75% possession in the first half. Some of it, I admit, was a bit too patient, and our fans were sometimes saying, “Come on, get it forward,” but we were just trying to move them and tire them out.
“They’re good on set plays, long balls, second balls, and transition. The more we worked, the less of a threat that became. Keeping the ball also limited the number of set pieces and throw-ins we gave away, and for me that was the only way they were going to score today.”
In a fair assessment of the game, he then noted how we had to go long at the end, and once again, they repelled our danger. It will never be clear if we would have seen a different game on the back of an early goal, or if he could have been so reasonable and pragmatic had Frankie Okoronkwo hit the target late on.
“I was really pleased with the first-half performance. We dominated possession without troubling our goalkeeper too much. Aaron had a couple of good runs and was a big threat. In the second half, we were excellent again — we got the goal, kept controlling the game, and when they went long near the end and threw more bodies forward, we defended our back line and our box really well.
I don’t have any issue with Wellens’ comments. He’s a manager I have a lot of respect for, and he’s got Orient into a decent place. After a tough start, they’ll surely start to climb the league, even if I’m not sure they were up there with the best teams we’ve seen this season.