Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens insisted he would win League One with Wanderers’ squad following his side’s 3-2 defeat at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Wellens made the audacious allegation while venting about some chants from the away end after falling behind 3-0 in the first 10 minutes. For the Whites, Josh Dacres-Cogley, Dion Charles, and George Thomason all scored.
The visitors responded quickly after the break, with Shaqai Forde and Theo Archibald scoring in a five-minute span. Ian Evatt’s men held off late pressure to secure all three points before the Christmas break.
“After 15 minutes, they were singing, ‘It’s only 3-0, how sh*t must you be?'” Wellens remarked.
“We’ve had two years of consistent success, and now we face Bolton Wanderers.” We got off to a bad start, and we need to figure out where we’re going.
“I’d love to be their manager with that team; I’d win the league with that team!”
“But we are where we are and our supporters need to be patient and go through the process.”
The result leaves Orient 16th in the table as they aim to build on winning the League Two title last season.
“The first 10 minutes, we were awful,” Wellens continued. “There was no pressure on the ball. You have to be careful because if you leave distances, you get the number eights running through gaps and they can manipulate the ball.
“Every time they go with Bodvarsson, he wants to open himself up and play to the opposite side of the pitch, and the wing-backs and eights cause you a problem.
“We worked on that, keeping the same side and our wing-back being narrow on their midfield, but we Hunt is too wide and the lad runs off and scores.
“There was nothing tactical about the first ten minutes; just pressure and desire.” Some of the young players were caught like rabbits in headlights because it was their first time playing at a large stadium.
“We recovered well, and I thought we were the better team for the rest of the half.” Charles has quality every time it enters the penalty area, the movement is good, and they receive a lot of first contacts.”
“It’s difficult because we’re a club trying to get to where they are,” he added. Bolton should never have been promoted to League One, so to come here and dominate for 45 minutes, I think 60 or 65 minutes, but you can’t start like that.”
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