Richie Wellens hails ruthless Leyton Orient for ‘brilliant result’ at Exeter

Jan 28, 2025 2 min read
Richie Wellens’ side are sixth in the table (Rhianna Chadwick/PA)
Richie Wellens’ side are sixth in the table (Rhianna Chadwick/PA)

Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens loved his side’s ruthlessness after moving into the League One play-off places with an emphatic 6-2 win at Exeter.

New signing Azeem Abdulai led the way with a hat-trick, his first goals for the club, while Sean Clare, Dilan Markanday and Jamie Donley were also on target with Millenic Alli’s brace all Exeter had to show for their efforts.

“It was a very strange game, but a brilliant result,” Wellens said.

“I thought we were ruthless and on the transition, I thought we looked like scoring every time we attacked.

“I know it sounds weird, but we played better against them earlier in the season, but got beat 1-0 at home – and we were miles better then, than we were tonight.

“They were better than us in a lot of areas, especially in control and the way that they played.

“It’s a long journey down here and we didn’t have much time to work or train, but in terms of our rotations and playing out, we did not work on too much, it was about playing forward and landing on seconds (balls) and if we could get the next pass, we knew we’d get our front three in dangerous positions.

“Credit to them, they came out second half and had a go, but every time we attacked, I thought we looked like scoring.

“We lost three players to injury because the schedule is brutal and I think, if we don’t have those injuries, I don’t think anyone can stop us.

“But instead of one or two, we might need three or four (new players) depending on how bad the injuries are.”

Exeter manager Gary Caldwell apologised to the supporters for their woeful performance, which came three days after they found themselves 3-0 down at the break to Blackpool, before losing 3-1.

“I am really disappointed and embarrassed at the way we performed, the way we just gave the game away again,” he said.

“We show our fight again in the second half, get back to 4-2 and are right in the game and we throw momentum away again.

“We apologise to the supporters that came here tonight, we have to do better – and we have to do better quickly.

“I take responsibility for the result and I have to do better and bring reinforcements into the team before Monday. But we have 18 games to go and we have to regroup very quickly.

“We only had two recognised defenders in the team, but we have to do better competing. We have to compete much better and we got outdone in the first 15 minutes by a team that was more aggressive, won more duals and out run us.

“They were 3-0 up in 14 minutes and hardly did a thing to do that. We just did not compete.”

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