ANDY Hessenthaler was disappointed to lose Armand Gnanduillet and Sammy Moore in the transfer window during the 2016/17 season.

Moore went back to Dover Athletic on a season long loan whereas the French striker made a permanent move to Blackpool due to their limited chances in the Leyton Orient starting XI.

Gnanduillet has only made one appearance for the O’s whereas Moore has failed to make an appearance.

Hessenthaler said: “The squad isn’t too big, we just unfortunately can’t keep everybody happy and Armand wanted to play.

“He felt he wasn’t going to feature with the strikers we’ve got and we respected his wishes and he had an opportunity to go to Blackpool.

“We let him do that and Sammy was pretty much the same, he feels he needed to play and is nearly 29 so doesn’t want to be sitting on the bench.”

The 51-year-old admitted that the east London club were still in the market ahead of the transfer window closing and signed French Teddy Mezague yesterday.

Mezague, who signed from Royal Excel Mouscron, will likely miss the rest of 2016 due to a Achilles injury.

“It doesn’t make it any easier for us because we need a squad and at the moment we’re down to 18 and we’ll see what we can do before Wednesday,” Hessenthaler added.

“We’ve got three in the central midfield position with the captain Robbie Weir on the bench against Mansfield.

“We’re okay in that area I think, but maybe we need to look at another defender and a striker.”

Orient lost 2-1 to Mansfield Town at home with goals from Matt Green and Mitchell Rose as the O’s failed to capitalise on their chances.

This result meant they had only managed to gain three points from a possible nine at home in the League Two season as they beat Stevenage 3-0 and lost 1-0 to Newport Town.

Hessenthaler added: “To have back-to-back wins and then lose on Saturday is disappointing, it is a game we shouldn’t have lost and we know that.

“It says in the paper we lost 2-1 to Mansfield, it shouldn’t be the case, but it is and the players need to realise we need to do better at both ends.

“The middle part of our play was quite good, but at both ends we weren’t good enough.”

Hessenthaler was keen to stress he is aware of fan expectation but he believes it is early days in regards to gaining a promotion spot.

“I’ve been in the game a long time and I’ve had criticism, I’m just doing it how I see it,” he admitted.

“I have a squad to work with. If you get criticised you get criticised, I understand that because people want to see us win football matches.

“But I’ll carry on working with the players to get them better and hopefully we can get on a decent run.”

The O’s boss said he wants his team to do more talking to one another at the back: “I think we are a bit quiet as a team, we do need a leader and people to talk and organise.

“When the ball is moving around, that is when you are at your most vulnerable going from side to side so you’ve got to defend properly.

“We didn’t do that so maybe we are lacking a leader type to get us organised and be vocal because we’ve got too many players that don’t say enough for me.”