Richie Wellens: Leyton Orient’s win at Wigan had ‘a bit of everything’

Wigan failed to make the most of a bright start and fell behind after 15 minutes when they could not clear a corner which allowed Tony Springett to put Orient ahead.

After Reggie Walsh had a goal disallowed for Wigan, Orient doubled their lead within 13 minutes of the restart when Yusuf Akhamrich punished a mistake by Jon Mellish.

Despite making five substitutions in the second period, Wigan barely threatened Noah Phillips, who had replaced Nathan Baxter in the Orient goal during the first half.

“It had a bit of everything,” said Wellens. “I thought we started the game well, and we maybe should have scored a couple of goals before we did.

“Once we got the goal, I thought we went into our shell a little bit, and I say it every time but we are brand new. And when you’re playing against Gary Caldwell’s teams, they cause you problems.

“The right-wing-back was rolling in, and the right centre mid was rolling up, and the right 10 was rolling out…and it caused us a lot of problems.

“We didn’t deal with that well enough or communicate well enough, so we had to make a change during the first half and then again at half-time.

“I thought that stirred us up, and I can’t remember them really having another chance in the game, because we kept winning the ball back.

“The lads are really buying into what we’re asking of them, and when they buy into everything we want of them, we look a good team.

“One of the biggest compliments I can give the players is that when we had that wacky 10-minute period that every team has, no-one made a mistake.”

Wigan are now the only side in the third tier still without a point after two games, but manager Gary Caldwell was upbeat despite defeat.

“You always want to get off to a good start in the league, and win your home games, but when I look back on the game, I’m very confident I’ll see a lot of very positive things,” he said.

“I think we’re doing a lot of very positive things at the moment, but we’re gifting the opposition goals, and we’re gifting the opposition games.

“We’re playing into their hands in terms of what they want. What is that, seven goals in the last three games now? That tells the story of what we need to get better at.

“The first goal is another second-phase from a corner, which we work on, and it can’t happen.

“The second goal is an individual error, after we spoke at half-time about staying in the game, and not allowing them to get a second, like we did last weekend and in midweek.

“We’re a team that hasn’t played together a lot, we’ve got a lot of new players, and there will be teething problems within that.

“I can see progression, though, while knowing there are certain areas we need to get better at.”