Embleton disappointed with Orient focus in draw with Oldham

Posted Sunday, February 23, 2020 by PA

Despite watching his Leyton Orient side extend their unbeaten home run to six matches, the Londoners’ head coach Ross Embleton expressed his disappointment with the 2-2 draw against Oldham.

Zak Dearnley struck twice for Oldham after a Tom Hamer own goal put Orient ahead, with Danny Johnson’s strike earning the hosts a point.

But Embleton was frustrated at his side’s inability to make the most of their advantage.

“The message I have given to the lads in there is that too many times this season we have been poor in the first half and had to come out second half all guns blazing and I am not willing to accept it,” he said.

“We have taken the lead in our last two games and once again today but for some reason our mindset changes and I feel there needs to be better game management. These are big moments in games and we didn’t have the focus to build on the early goal

“The manner which we conceded both goals had lots of moments where we should have been better and we knew Oldham were going to come here and make it difficult but we had a massive focus on stopping them putting the ball in the box and unfortunately we switched off today. These are key parts of playing the game in English football and we are not doing that well enough at the moment.

“On the positive side, I was delighted for Danny Johnson to get his first goal in an Orient shirt. Danny has got a real hunger about him and showed today why we have signed him.”

All four goals came as a result of set-pieces with Orient taking the lead when Hamer deflected the ball into his own net. But two goals in three minutes by Dearnley gave Oldham the advantage before the break.

Johnson then levelled with his first goal since joining Orient from Dundee in January.

Latics Head Coach Dino Maamria was content with the result.

“It was a very good away performance I thought between two good teams in difficult conditions with the wind and a bobbly pitch,” he stated.

“I thought both teams showed a lot of desire to win the game and their goalkeeper made an unbelievable save from Danny Rowe’s header in the last minute of the game to deny us the three points.

“I thought the point was the least we deserved but overall, it is a huge step forward from our last away performance. I thought we showed a lot of resilience and a lot of quality with the ball going forward.

“Defensively I thought we were very solid. I don’t think our goalkeeper had a save to make throughout the game in open play. Our only disappointment was that we didn’t not defend the corner and free-kick which led to their goals as well as we have been doing.

“We are growing as a team and we have a decent depth to our squad.”