Embleton : We didn't give ourselves the chance to show what we are all about

Leyton Orient manager Ross Embleton was disappointed with his team’s performance as they exited the FA Cup in the first round against Newport County at Brisbane Road yesterday.

The O’s conceded huge amounts of possession – and chances – in the 2-1 defeat to the Welsh side, who showed their class – and proved why they are top of League Two.

Jamie Devitt’s 77th minute strike would have beaten most goalkeepers and sealed a tie which the away side more than deserved.

Embleton admitted his side were second best and lamented Orient’s failure to gain any control in the tie.

He said: “They’ve got some good players. What disappointed me most was we didn’t impose ourselves on the game and haven’t given ourselves the chance to show what we are about against a good team.

“The winning goal is stunning, they dominated possession of the ball and we gave away an incredible amount of chances.

“We need to do better in terms of moments when we need to get control of the game. We didn’t get good enough balls up to the front, then when we tried to push them back, we didn’t do that well enough.

“Lots of our clearances went to Newport players, which meant they could start another attack which meant we couldn’t get control of the game.”

Goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux was to blame for the first goal. He came out of his area to intercept the ball and although he did that part of his job well, his attempted pass to full-back Joe Widdowson went straight to County right-back Ash Baker, who composed himself to curl the ball into an empty net from distance.

But Embleton refused to blame the keeper, saying: “Lawrence has come out well and done his job to intercept.

“It’s easy to say he should have kicked it off – we haven’t been patting him on the back for how fantastic he’s been all season for just kicking it off – he’s tried to complete a pass and hasn’t.”

A bright spot for the O’s was the performance of promising midfielder Hector Kyprianou, who scored Orient’s goal.

Embleton said: “I think he’s got an incredible temperament. I was delighted with him for the goal but there were moments today when he did things which other kids of his age can’t do - the way he takes the ball under pressure. Some of the things he does is top level stuff.

“It’s a disappointment to be out of the cup. It’s easy to forget that we’ve had two good cup runs. We reached a strong round (in the league cup) which we had ripped away from us (when Tottenham were awarded the tie after Orient players went down with coronavirus).

“And we have progressed in the EFL Trophy. We’ve had two steady cup runs. I am really disappointed that we haven’t progressed today because I felt there was an opportunity for us to do that.

“The performance disappoints me more. There is now an opportunity for maybe a free Saturday - but that by no means is a silver living, I am disappointed that we have been knocked out.”