Leyton Orient boss Mauro Milanese believes his side did enough to earn a replay despite losing 1-0 at Oldham Athletic in the first round of the FA Cup.

Milanese is still looking for his first win as manager after the O's were knocked out of the competition by a first-half free-kick from Mike Jones.

Milanese said: "I thought it was equal and the only difference was the free-kick because I think their keeper saved more than ours. I think it was a game that could have easily been a draw rather than a clear win. 

"Dean Cox had a shot saved first and then with their first chance they put the ball in and that makes a difference.

"We are disappointed because I think in the first half their first shot of the game killed us. It was a good free-kick. There weren't too many mistakes but maybe we need to be careful about conceding fouls outside the box."

The Italian added: "It's a team [Oldham] that are really good and fit at the moment and very competitive from the start of the season. But I think we played like them and they scored from their first opportunity.

"After this we tried to do our best and get some control and draw this game but it wasn't possible."

Milanese raised some fans' eyebrows after replacing Mathieu Baudry with defender Gary Sawyer in the second half when Orient were chasing the game. But he explained the tactical switch was designed to make the O's more dangerous going forward.

He said: "We finished playing 3-4-1-2 so I put out one defender in Baudry and played three at the back. We put Bradley Pritchard and Sawyer down the sides because I think it was hard to put Elliot Omozusi on the right. 

"I thought we had the chance to go with Sawyer on the left and Pritch on the right with Cox behind two strikers. I thought it would be more offensive with all the solutions to get in the box."