‘Bitterly disappointed’ Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens slams performance against Chesterfield as 'disgrace'

Richie Wellens, manager of Leyton Orient. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

The Spireites progressed to round three of the FA Cup after upsetting the odds once again to beat another League One team 1-0. They will travel to Championship Watford in the next round.

“I thought in the first-half we were a disgrace,” Wellens said. “In the first six or seven minutes we were okay, I thought we were in control of the game, but then they (Chesterfield) ran a little bit harder, fought a little bit harder, and we didn’t react.

"I spoke to the players at half-time and said try to put it into perspective. It is a freezing cold weekend and our supporters have saved up, worked overtime in the current crisis when it is coming up to Christmas. That first-half was not acceptable. Nowhere near. I can take people misplacing a pass but not running and fighting. You have got to fight and scrap in an away game. We had a warning because they beat Portsmouth here in the first round. I am bitterly disappointed.

"I am gutted for our supporters, for our owners, we wanted a cup run this year. We gave it a go in the second-half, we dominated territory more or less apart from a few counter-attacks, but again we needed to be brighter. We need some quality in January.”

Ollie Banks’ cross looped in off the head of captain Idris Elmizouni six minutes before half-time and that proved to be enough for the Blues to record a deserved win, although Wellens may disagree.

He added: "I think what summed up the game today was that we conceded from an own goal. In terms of chances, did they have many? Maybe one at the end when they were counter-attacking. We had a few occasions when we could have slid people in one v one and didn’t play the pass right. Our set-plays were poor. I am not happy.

"Our average age today was 22 which is really young. Some of their players have Championship experience if you look at (Tom) Naylor and (Will) Grigg. I knew coming into the game the amount of Football League games they have got in their team that it was going to be a difficult game.”