Leyton Orient’s resilience delights Richie Wellens in win over relegation rivals

Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens praised the resilience of his side after their hard-fought 2-1 victory over relegation rivals Northampton at Sixfields on Saturday.

Orient picked up their first away win since November thanks to goals from Dom Ballard and James Morris, which was enough to move them out of the League One relegation zone.

“Sometimes, when you’re in the form we’ve been in, you just need a result by hook or by crook,” said Wellens.

“What I’m most pleased about is the resilience we showed.

“I thought we dominated the first half today in terms of chances created, I can’t really remember them getting into our box with any real danger.

“But as soon as we scored the second goal, we dropped off when we didn’t need to drop.

“Against good passing teams, like a Bolton or a Cardiff, you can afford to push back because you’re worried about them playing through you.

“But Northampton are so good at putting balls in the box and we just dropped and allowed them to do that and we were a bit tentative.

“We don’t coach that, we want to put pressure on the ball, but we were good on the counter and ultimately the result was the most important thing.

“I’m pleased with the resilience and the desire.”

Northampton pulled goal one back through Tom Eaves but they now have just one win in 13 league games and languish down in 22nd.

Manager Kevin Nolan said: “I’m obviously disappointed. I thought we put them under enough pressure to get something from the game.

“We dominated them throughout but the reality is that we didn’t sustain pressure for long enough and we didn’t create enough clear chances.

“We put 30 odd crosses into their box and we had plenty of play in their half, we dominated all of the stats and on another day we get a result, but we’re in that moment right now where we keep getting punished.

“We’re punishing ourselves at the moment because we conceded two really poor goals. The ball is just pumped up the pitch and we seem to lose our composure a bit, but we have to keep doing what we did today.

“If we do that, we will come out the other side, I don’t doubt that, but we have to eradicate those horrible goals because they are costing us.

“Any defeat is tough to take but we have plenty of games left and I’ve always been a positive person and there’s enough there for me.

“If we play like that every week, more often than not we will come out with the right scoreline.”