Richie Wellens apologised to the Leyton Orient fans and branded his team “immature” as they fell well short of the standards they set on their way to Wembley last season in a 3-0 defeat at Huddersfield.
Play-off finalists Orient claimed a 4-1 victory in the same fixture on the final day of the regular season last term, but it was a different story in an opening game between two very new-look sides.
Wellens, who felt some of his players “gave up”, said: “We were very, very immature in our performance. We lost too many duels, our reactions were poor, body language…everything I want my team to be we were nowhere near.
“We wanted to come out and play pretty football and for it to be about us. Football is not like that, if you get away from the basics – which we did – you get what you deserve.
“It’s a new team you’re looking at and this week we lost Omar Beckles and Idris El Mizouni to injury, the best players in our team in terms of duels and intensity. But when we play like that I’m not going to make excuses.
“Every single player who started the game had a good opportunity to grab the shirt and apart from one or two, no-one’s really done himself justice.
“I think some players gave up and that’s never happened before.
“But we weren’t really going for it and I feel sorry for the fans. I don’t really do this, but I apologise to them. We played a boring way of playing.”
Joe Low put Huddersfield in front with a free header from Herbie Kane’s free-kick seven minutes into his debut.
The hosts doubled their lead soon after the break as Sean Clare brought down Ben Wiles just inside the area, with Alfie May’s penalty sending Tommy Simkin the wrong way.
Ruben Roosken grabbed the third in added time.
Despite the impressive start, new Huddersfield boss Lee Grant believes his side still have plenty to work on.
He said: “You can reflect on it now and say, ‘Oh, what a wonderful day’, but there was lots in there that we need to be better with and we need to learn from.
“Of course, the result for the supporters, the result for the group in general, is lovely, but it’s important we are measured and don’t get too far ahead of ourselves.
“It’s my job to keep pushing for more and more. If I ever feel like we don’t need to do more I’ll stop, but I don’t think there’s ever been a coach or a manager who has reached that point.
“The important thing is, though, that we were us and the group wanted to show people an honest and fair representation of who we are, who we want to be and what we’re trying to do this season.
“There were definitely windows into that for the supporters and I think they will go away thinking, ‘Oh, I can see what they were doing there’. That was the focus for the group for this game.”
