Wellens: Dropping points was massive downer for Leyton Orient

Ruel Sotiriou’s first-half brace put O’s firmly on top at the break, but the visitors struck twice in the space of three minutes just before the hour mark to earn a share of the spoils. 

And Wellens said he felt for the supporters, but wanted to focus on the positives.

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“I get the supporters, it’s difficult, it’s put a massive dampener on it,” he told the club website.

“But if you’d offered us seven points from the last three and 12 unbeaten, we have to look at the positives, it’s another point.

“We came into the game 11 points clear, I think we’re still 11 points clear of fourth and that has to be the main objective.

“I think we’re guaranteed to be in the play-offs, that was the first objective. Now we need to try and get in the top three.

“It’s a slow process, I know everyone is down, I’m down.

“When you go 2-0 up at home and it’s total domination and we’re looking like a really good team, to then drop points puts a massive downer on it.

“But you have to give them credit, they’re plucky, they’ve got lads that are fighting for their livelihoods and club and they represented their club really well today, ran hard, stayed in the game and when they got those couple of opportunities – they had one after that – they took them.”

Sotiriou opened the scoring on nine minutes, picking the ball up some 30 yards out and advancing on goal before firing past Mark Oxley.

And the Cyprus under-21 international guided home Paul Smyth’s superb pass to double the advantage on 36 minutes, as Oxley denied the Irishman and Idris El Mizouni either side of the break.

However, Anthony O’Connor and George Thomson netted in quick succession to rock O’s, who saw Oxley make saves from Smyth and Sotiriou, while Charlie Kelman and Smyth sent other chances just wide.

“We had numerous times to get the third and we looked threatening every time we got the ball, we played some fantastic stuff,” added Wellens.

“But the game can always change, we conceded at a bad time, it give them a lifeline.

“But I think some of the players, we just dropped off it, become lethargic and slow.

“We played one backwards pass, then another backwards pass and it’s easy to press. We don’t play a backwards pass to play forward.

“It’s just little things that we’ve done in the last six or seven weeks, we’ve resorted back to.”

O’s still have an eight-point lead over Northampton, with a game in hand, and head to Sutton United on Saturday (April 15).