Wellens felt 'complacent' Orient 'deserved to be booed off' after 'playing into Northampton's hands'

Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens felt his side were 'complacent' and ‘deserved to be booed off’ at half-time during Saturday’s 4-2 defeat to Northampton.

The O's had early chances through Aaron Drinan and Paul Smyth but were blitzed by a rampant 25-minute period during which the Cobblers scored four times.

Josh Eppiah netted two, with Jon Guthrie and Mitch Pinnock also on target, and that did the damage as Orient suffered only their third defeat in nine games.

"We were on holiday in that first-half," said Wellens. "We were playing it between ourselves at the back and it was so slow.

"When you play against a team who basically want to run around and see the ball in front of them and press, you're playing into their hands.

"I didn't think it was a foul for the first goal, although it's an unbelievable strike by the lad, and then the third goal, Eppiah is offside.

"I think our supporters let the referee know what they thought of his performance but we can't blame the referee. We have to blame ourselves today because the majority of them were on holiday."

Wellens was far happier with his side's efforts after the break, adding: "In the second-half we matched them up and played at a better tempo. Harry Smith and Jordan Brown came on and did great and at 4-2 we had a few chances. One was cleared off the line but after the red card, our momentum drifted away from us.

"If we get that third goal, we might have come back. But when you start like we did, it makes it difficult. I felt we were complacent and when you get complacent, people come down 10 per cent.

"It's just human nature. Northampton turned up with a really good attitude and they were at it from the first minute. All they've done is run about, get Eppiah on the ball and put balls behind us and we have played far too much in front of them.

"We deserved to be booed off at half-time and we got what we deserved but it's a wake-up call and that's maybe what we needed.”